The World No. 4 Indian hockey team begin its quest for that elusive Olympic hockey medal with their first group match against New Zealand (No. 8) today and skipper Manpreet Singh, 29, stressed upon the significance of a good start.

“This time, we are just making sure we don’t underestimate any team. We have to be careful of New Zealand. It’s the Olympics and any team coming here are at their best and will be wanting to play well and obviously win a medal here. This time, we should not take any team for granted. The rankings don’t matter, and we need to start well to finish well,” Manpreet said during a virtual interaction after a training session at the Oi Hockey Stadium in Tokyo on Thursday.