Poovanna aims to make India debut after recovering from serious injury

BENGALURU: After a brief stint with the Indian junior team in 2023, Poovanna Chandura Boby is now training with the senior core group ahead of European leg of the FIH Hockey Pro League leg. The 22-year-old is currently part of the senior national camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre in Bengaluru and has made it into the 40-member core group.

With the junior team, Poovanna had a fruitful spell winning the gold and bronze medals at the 2022 and 2023 Sultan of Johar Cup respectively. He was also part of India’s men’s Junior Asia Cup winning squad in 2023 and made it to the senior national camp in August 2024.

About his training in the camp, Poovanna said, “I’ve played for junior team in 2023 and now training with the senior players, I see a lot of differences between them and us. There’s a lot of work we need to put in to get to that level. It doesn’t matter how fit you are, you need to get much better to compete against European teams. It has been a brilliant journey so far.”

Poovanna played the Hockey India League 2024/25 for champion Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers, however, he couldn’t play the complete tournament due to an injury. In its seventh match against JSW Soorma Hockey Club, Poovanna suffered a facial injury while defending a penalty corner.

“It was a penalty corner and I generally don’t rush third, so I didn’t have my face mask on. Harmanpreet Singh fired a shot and it deflected off my team-mate’s stick and hit my upper cheek. So, I was rushed off the field and I had to get my surgery done right away. I couldn’t play the rest of the tournament,” he explained.

He also revealed that he could have made his senior team debut during the home leg of the FIH Hockey Pro League 2024-25 in Bhubaneswar but missed out on the opportunity due to his injury. “Thankfully we won the HIL but the coach told me that I was called up for the Pro League squad but I couldn’t go because of my injury. Hence, I joined the camp early, worked with the physio in order to get in good shape for the training camp in March,” he added.

Hailing from Kodagu, formerly known as Coorg, Poovana comes from a family where hockey is a proud tradition. The Kodava hockey festival is renowned worldwide for being one of the world’s largest hockey tournaments.

Talking about the dynamic he shares with the other senior players of the squad, Poovanna shared, “The seniors are easy to talk to and we youngsters learn a lot from them since they have been playing for a lot of years and have much better experience than us. We need to learn from them because we need to carry forward their legacy ahead in the coming years.”