Southeastern railways

Junior Hockey World Cup: Progressing from the junior to senior level may seem a natural and logical move for a player but it is quite a challenging step considering the different standards. Young hockey player Sunil Jojo has gone through this phase in the last few weeks.

From Rourkela to the senior men’s national coaching camp, the 22-year-old defender is embracing the next phase of his hockey journey. Having represented India twice at the Junior Hockey World Cup and featured in the bronze-medal finish at the recent Sultan of Johor Cup, Sunil now finds himself training among the country’s elite.

“It takes some getting used to. It’s not easy,” Sunil said about making the jump to the senior camp for the first time. “The physicality is much more, and the pace of the game is also very quick, so you need to adjust to that. There’s a change in the skill level, too, so you need to train very hard. Now that I am here, I’m learning to play this way,” he was quoted as saying by Hockey India in a release on Wednesday.