Squash is a two-player ball sport similar to tennis. The sport is played in a four-walled court where players must hit the ball onto the front wall and the opponent must hit it back to the wall before the ball touches the ground again after the first bounce. One match of squash consists of three games, each of which is played by different members of a team and each game is further broken down into five sets. The player who wins three or more sets by becoming the first to score eleven points in each set, wins the game and the team that wins two or more games wins the match. The four walls of the court have demarcations and the players must ensure that the ball remains within these lines at all times.

The captain of the boy’s squash team, Ashish Dhek sat down with the English Press Club to discuss the team and BOSM 2018. This year, the team consists of one first year and two members each from the second, third and fourth year. The team will be seeded into Team A and Team B during BOSM and the remaining player will be a substitute for one of these teams. The fourth years are the erstwhile BOSM and Outstation captains and show good prospects for the team.

The team began training for BOSM early this semester with evening sessions and has started morning practice sessions as well, over the past two weeks. Practice sessions consist of basic exercises, stretches and ghosting. Ghosting is when a player practices shots in the air, without the ball, to improve their movements and poise. Warm-up is followed by mock matches where the team plays against each other. The practice sessions are curated by the coach, Gaurav Patel who hails from Allahabad, where he mentors the players and gives them advice on how to improve their game.

When asked about the strategy of the team, Ashish said, ‘We try to tire the other player in the first two sets and capitalise on this in the following sets.’ During competitions, the players analyse the opponent’s style while they practice and accordingly seed their teams into Team A and Team B. This strategy has worked well for them as they secured the silver medal in the Outstation tournament at IIT Roorkee and the bronze last BOSM. The team will improve on this tactic and use it against their rivals and last year’s gold and silver medallists, Manipal Jaipur and IIT Delhi.

Ashish later spoke about his experience in the sport and captaincy. He picked up the sport in the eleventh standard and made great strides in a very short time. He credits a lot of his skill to the seniors of the BITS squash team who helped him improve since he joined the team. About captaincy, he said ‘You have to lead by example. It is unreasonable to expect other people to show up on time if the captain himself doesn’t.’ Though his role as captain comes with few other responsibilities, it does occasionally take up time which becomes difficult to cope with when paired with the strenuous nature of squash. Academics do take a toll as the fest approaches, but Ashish plans on compensating for the loss after BOSM is over.

The squash team looks well equipped to tackle their opponents this BOSM after more than one and a half months of practice. On a closing note, Ashish made a plea to the BITSians to come out and attend more matches and activities during BOSM.