Since then, he has been a regular with the senior Indian team, playing the perfect understudy to veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh. Currently, Sreejesh and Pathak alternate between the four quarters of every match, as chief coach Craig Fulton looks to extract the best from both ’keepers.

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“This is a very important year for us [hockey players] as it’s an Olympic year. All our training programmes at the ongoing national camp in Bangalore have been aimed at excelling in this big quadrennial competition. [The Indian hockey team under then skipper Manpreet Singh won a historic bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after a gap of 40 years]. All our team discussions in the last few months have been about how we can change the colour of our Tokyo Olympic medal at the Paris Olympics [July 26 to August 11]. So, personally, this Arjuna Award is extra motivation for me to work harder to ensure we better the colour of that Olympic medal. I have no doubt we will achieve this,” added Pathak.