Asian Games 2023: Dhanraj Pillay calls Harmanpreet the Dhoni of Indian hockey
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asian games 2023 The success of the Indian team in winning the gold medal in 2017 reminded great forward Dhanraj Pillai of the 1998 victory and he praised captain Harmanpreet Singh and called him the Mahendra Singh Dhoni of Indian hockey.
India won gold by defeating Japan in Asian Games
India won the Asian Games gold medal by defeating defending champion Japan 5-1 in the final in Hangzhou and also qualified for the Paris Olympics. Dhanraj, who was the captain of the Indian team that won gold in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, said, I am happy that we completely dominated and played better than them in all four quarters. It is not easy to win 5-1 in the final. Last time this Japan team had defeated us. This 55-year-old stalwart, who has played four Olympics, four World Cups, four Asian Games and four Champions Trophies, praised Harmanpreet, who scored the maximum 13 goals in the Hangzhou Games, and said that credit goes to Harmanpreet’s captaincy to a great extent. He is Mahendra Singh Dhoni of Indian hockey. Does his work and keeps guiding from behind. Emotions do not overpower him and he remains calm even under pressure.
Dhanraj remembered 1998 after watching the hockey final of Asian Games
Dhanraj said, in this team, senior players like Sreejesh (PR), Manpreet (Singh), Lalit (Upadhyay), Rohidas (Amit) created a very good coordination. I remembered 1998 while watching the final. This victory will be written in history. The boys played together and scored so many goals. Under the captaincy of Dhanraj, South Korea was defeated 4-2 in the penalty shootout in the final of the 1998 Asian Games. After Korea took the lead, India equalized on Dhanraj’s goal in the stipulated time. He said, in 1998 I had such a strong team. There were experienced goalkeepers like Ashish Balal and AB Subbaiya. There were Lazarus Barla, Dilip Tirkey in fullback, Sandeep Somesh, Balbir Singh Saini, Mohammad Riaz in defence, while in the forward line there were players like Mukesh Kumar, myself, Sameer Dad, Baljeet Dhillon. He said, when the Indian team was standing on the podium yesterday wearing a gold medal, I went back 25 years. After winning the medal, I was crying holding Subaiya and Balal.
Dhanraj prayed that the Indian team should book its ticket to Paris from Hangzhou itself.
Dhanraj said, it has been 19 years since I left hockey but I have not stopped following hockey. I have roamed around the grounds of many stadiums holding the Tricolor in my hand. There is a different atmosphere when the team sings the national anthem while looking at the tricolor. Only a player can understand what goes on in the player’s mind at that time. Dhanraj, who has gone through many Olympic qualifiers, said that he was praying that the Indian team gets the ticket to Paris from Hangzhou itself. He said, qualifying for the Olympics through Asiad is a great relief. The pressure of qualifying is so much that we are not able to focus on preparations. I was remembering the old Olympic qualifiers and was praying that we would qualify from Hangzhou itself.
Dhanraj gave advice to Indian hockey team for Olympics
Advising the team to prepare twice as much for the Olympics, this veteran said, I would say that you will have to prepare twice as much for the Olympics as you have done till now. There we have to play against world champion teams like Australia, Netherlands, Germany etc. He said, apart from this, there will also be pressure to change the color of the medal. Last time there was bronze, now there will be pressure to win silver or gold. Ignore what is happening outside and just focus on the game. It is very important to stay safe from injuries.
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