Sardar Singh is considered the heart and soul of the modern Indian hockey team. The veteran star has been serving the national sports for years now. However, the 32-year-old has been working hard to keep up with the speed of the modern game.
Sardar, who was dropped by former coach Sjoerd Marijne due to his lack of speed, has been tirelessly working on his fitness ahead of the Asian Games 2018. The result is that the former Indian captain has attained a new level of fitness and cleared the yo-yo test comfortably.
According to The Indian Express, he recorded a 21.4 in the yo-yo test last week. Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli, considered one of the fittest sportspersons in India, has a yo-yo test score is 19, which is also the benchmark set for English and Australian cricketers.
Sardar recently talked to the newspaper about his motivation behind this hard work. He said that he was scared after getting dropped from the national team.
When Marijne was sent back to coach the women's team and Harender Singh became the new coach, it seemed inevitable that Sardar will return to the team. Still Sardar has kept working hard for the last few months so nobody can say that he is not fit enough.
Sardar is part of the Indian men's hockey team for the upcoming Asian Games 2018 where they will defend the title won four years ago in Incheon.
India will be the favourites to win the gold after their performance in Incheon. A gold in Jakarta will also ensure qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
