Jamal Baptiste is enjoying his time in India.
The imposing central defender featured in both of the U19s matches in the Premier League Next Generation Cup so far, playing the full 70 minutes in the opening game against ATK Mohun Bagan as well as appearing off the bench in the win over Bengaluru.
The 19-year-old has been out for the majority of the 2022/23 season with a long-term injury problem but has made his comeback out in South Asia and he is looking forward to the team’s final group stage fixture against Stellenbosch on Tuesday.
Only a win against the South African side would see Lauris Coggin’s Hammers top Group A and reach the final of the competition – with Baptiste believing that this young Hammers side have what it takes to come through the challenge with the required result.
“The confidence from the boys and myself is there ahead of the game,” Baptiste told whufc.com.
“We played well in our last match, and we know the job in hand heading into this one. It will be a different time of game, and style of football that we won’t be too used to coming up against, but we think we’ve got enough to make sure we’re in the final.
“Playing in India has brought different challenges, obviously the heat probably being the biggest of those. It’s likely to affect us again with the kick off time being a little earlier. But I think we’ve really acclimatised now as a group from where we were in that first game, so we’re expecting things to be a lot better this time around.”
Baptiste is one of the more experienced players in this U19s group that have travelled to Mumbai, with the defender joined from Mark Robson’s U21s squad by Archie Woods for the end-of-season tour.
Indeed, being one of the older players is something that the centre back isn’t used to, but he’s enjoying adapting to the challenge of being one of the experienced heads.
“It’s obviously a different challenge that I have to overcome. In pretty much all of the other teams I’ve been involved with, I’ve been one of the younger ones in the group, so it’s different this time around.
“I’m trying to use what I learnt when I was one of the younger boys to help me, remembering what the older lads did for me and how I can use that to help the lads now. It’s a challenge that I’m enjoying.”
Baptiste was solid in the 1-1 draw with ATK Mohun Bagan in the opening game, where he played alongside Kaelen Casey at the heart of the Hammers backline. It was his first competitive fixture since playing for the U21s against AS Monaco in the Premier League International Cup back in February.
The defender says that he is not only enjoying being back out on the grass, but also the experience of being in India and the opportunities the team have had away from the football pitch.
“The first game was a big game for the team but also for me personally. I haven’t played a game for a long while because of injury, so to come in and play the full game in the heat in India was tough, but it was a really good experience.
“Our time out here has been really good, I really like India and it’s somewhere I would definitely like to come back to again. We’ve had some really good cultural activities and have done things that I’ve never had the opportunity to do before.
“It’s been a great experience being here, and hopefully we will make a success of it in the tournament to round the trip off,” he concluded.
