Gurjit Kaur ‘not doing anything extra’ in PC practice ahead of women's hockey World Cup

Especially at the Tokyo Olympics, she scored four goals, including the one that helped India beat Australia and make it to their maiden Olympic semifinals. Chosen as the FIH Women’s Player of the Year 2020-2021, she has continued her good show post the Olympics and is now hoping to make it big at her second World Cup. However, she hasn’t been doing anything special as far as PCs are concerned.

“I haven’t been doing anything extra as far as PCs are concerned. Have been practicing them for about half-an-hour regularly after every practice session that also includes normal drag-flicks as well as the variations,” said Gurjit during an interaction with TOI. While Gurjit has been the team’s first-choice drag-flicker, others have also started to share the mantle including Deep Grace Ekka, who scored against Argentina and the US in the Pro League matches recently.

And this has certainly made it easier for her. “It’s not like only when I convert a PC that we will be scoring a goal. The team is like a family and when everybody does the work in the family, it works.

It's the same for a team also. When everybody contributes, that’s when the team is successful. Not only me but others also practice PCs.

While some go for slaps, others go for hits,” she added. While PCs are one of the Indian team’s biggest strengths, defence has been a bit of a concern for the team recently. They conceded 7 against Belgium and 6 against Argentina in their double headers.

But Gurjit isn’t too worried about it. “Defence starts from the strikers themselves in our team. If somebody scores a goal, they should also know how to defend.