Rejected for not being ‘good enough’, Angad Bir Singh emerges as Indian hockey’s next big hope

“Ye lad ke aaya hai upar (He has fought his way up).” Aravinder Pal Singh gushes as he recalls the journey of his son, hockey player Angad Bir.Angad was once removed from an academy for ‘not being good enough.’ He spent every waking hour improving his skills – and sometimes, sacrificed sleep too. All the hard work paid off: earlier this month, Angad scored seven goals during India’s triumphant Junior Asia Cup campaign in Oman, including one against Pakan in the final.His story, however, began at the Sector 42 Stadium in Chandigarh where he fell in love with the game. Aravinder Pal, an ardent hockey fan, took his three children – who already played the sport – to watch the matches of the now-defunct Hockey India League (HIL).
“All three of us (siblings) used to play hockey. But when I saw all the international stars during the HIL, I started taking hockey seriously,” Angad tells The Indian Express. “My father was a big hockey fan. He never missed any match at the Sector 42 Stadium. The Stadium was also close to our house, and I used to accompany him from a very young age. With time, I started understanding the game better, and it grew on me.”.
At the Junior Asia Cup in Muscat, all of Angad’s goals were field goals. (Special arrangement)
The dance between Angad’s home in Sector 37 and the stadium was hardly 3 km. Yet, he did not get a chance to train at the academy after he was told the coaches that he didn’t have it in him to become but he never got the chance to train at the academy as he was told the coaches that he doesn’t have it.
His sers – Brahmjot, who is elder to him, and twin Upneet – quit playing after a tiff with a local coach. Angad, meanwhile, was not allowed to train at the facility.
“My daughters were excellent in hockey. Angad’s twin (Upneet) still fights with him and tells him she is a better player,” Aravinder Pal says, laughing. “My daughters had a feud with a coach, and they decided to quit the game. They were excellent in their studies as well. The elder one did engineering and is currently working in Bengaluru, while the younger one is pursuing MBBS.”
“Angad was troubled a lot the coaches. He was removed from the training group. So he used to go to the Stadium at 2 in the morning and trained there till 4 am. It was scary for all of us. I used to tell him to focus on his studies, but he wanted to prove everyone wrong. He kept doing it,” he adds.
Angad hoped the experience of playing a high-pressure match, like the final against Pakan, would come in handy in the future. (Special arrangement)
Aravinder Pal says if not for the three former India players Baljit Singh (goalkeeper), Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh (forward), Angad would not have reached this level.
“Baljit first spotted his talent. Then Deepak, who is his mentor, took him under his wings and trained him whenever he was back from the camp. He used to ask him to carry a copy and pencil.
“When the Indian Oil team trained at the Sector 42 Stadium, Deepak would call Angad, and he’d join them. Angad made notes of his game and Deepak used to go through it after training. Deepak worked a lot on his hockey. He worked on his dribbling, taught him the right pace and height one should hit at the goalkeeper and how to generate speed from a strike. Angad just soaked it up,” says Aravinder.
Deepak and Prabhjot, who were impressed with Angad’s athletic abilities, resigned on separate occasions when Angad was not selected for the Chandigarh state team, Aravinder Pal says.
At the Junior Asia Cup in Muscat, all of Angad’s goals were field goals. They weren’t simple tap-ins. Being trained two of India’s most stylish players, his strikes were crafty.
Angad also revealed how they tried to dominate Pakan’s defence. (Special arrangement)
“As a striker, I always try to create and score. In this tournament, drag-flickers could not convert because of the astroturf. The responsibility was on the strikers to score more,” says Angad, who formed a dangerous alliance upfront along with Araijeet Singh Hundal and Aditya Lalage.
“The Asia Cup turf was not used in the last five years. It was difficult for us to dribble. We planned to roll the stick on the turf, but we were not able to do it as there was no friction on the turf. We had to tap and lift. We analysed it after our first training session,” says Angad.
Angad Bir Singh with his sers. (Special arrangement)
Angad hoped the experience of playing a high-pressure match, like the final against Pakan, would come in handy in the future. It was also the first time he played in front of packed stands.
“I had never played such a high-intensity match. The crowd was also half India and half Pakan. Half of the crowd was cheering for us, while the other was whling at us. I had never witnessed anything like that. We felt the pressure before the warm-up when we saw it was a full house,” he recollects.

Angad also reveals the plan and how they tried to dominate Pakan’s defence. “We knew that the language was the same. So we tried to mislead them. We started aggressively and wanted them to hear our plans; we talked on high notes like we were yelling at each other. It was only to intimidate them, and it also worked,” says Angad.