KOLKATA: Araijeet Singh Hundal had a dream outing in the recently concluded Junior Asia Cup in Salalah, Oman, where he not only finished as the highest scorer for India having netted eight goals but also sounded the board once during the all-important final against Pakistan.
It was a moment for pure joy for the player from Amritsar to score in the summit clash. However, this moment seemed a distant dream for Araijeet a few months back as he went through a bad patch as far as his mindset was concerned.
“I did well during Junior World Cup but the outing during Sultan of Johor Cup last year wasn’t at all great for me. I was feeling low and couldn’t perform well,” said Araijeet during an interaction with TOI.
“I was having negative thoughts and overall feeling down. I was always thinking that this wouldn’t be possible and that wouldn’t be possible. That resulted in my form going further down and I couldn’t play to my full potential.”
Compared to 2021 Junior World Cup, where he scored five goals including a hat-trick against Canada, Araijeet scored only three goals in six matches in Sultan of Johor Cup last year.
The drop in form obviously caught the coach’s attention and he did his best to help out the youngster. “During the tournament coach CR Kumar had called me and asked me what was going wrong, why wasn’t I able to play? Even my teammates kept motivating me as much as they could. However, even as I kept trying, I just wasn’t able to perform,” Araijeet lamented.
However, once the tournament was over, he did all that was necessary to get things in order. He spoke to his friends, family and coach. “It was then that CR Kumar told me ‘relax your mind and you will be able to play better’,” said the 18-year-old.
Araijeet also made good use of the yoga classes that are held in SAI Bengaluru. “I learnt to control my mind and practised hard, stayed around positive people and ignored the negative things. I also tried to enjoy the game and not think too much,” said Araijeet. “Moreover, I deleted the memory of entire Sultan of Johor Cup from my mind and just focused on my game.”
This all helped him as he finally began Junior Asia Cup with a positive mindset and got the result.
While the victory was obviously sweet, he is now looking forward to winning a medal at Junior World Cup to be held later this year. “We haven’t gone home for six-seven months. Will go back only after the World Cup and I want to go back with a medal. That’s what we are waiting for,” said Aarijeet.
That will indeed be a special moment for his father Kuljit Singh. After all it was Kuljit who inspired Araijeet to take up the game. “He also wanted to play for the country but sadly that didn’t happen. However, I have the chance to do it now,” added the forward before signing off.
