After beating Pakistan in the finals of Asian Champions Trophy 2016, former Indian player Dhanraj Pillay said that the India’s next target should be the World Cup which will be held in 2018.
“We need to fight teams like Australia, Germany, and Netherlands. Also, the upcoming forces like Belgium who beat India in the quarter-final of the Rio Olympics and Argentina need to be quelled in order to take the next step,” former Indian captain Dhanraj Pillay said on Monday.
“ World Cup should be our next target. After one year of Champions Trophy will stop and will be replaced by Global World League. We have been dominating in Asia but it is time to look beyond that. We have won the world in 1975 after that we have failed to put impressive performances on the world stage,”Gurbax said.
Indian hockey team was one of the best teams in the world. During the 12 Olympics between 1920 and 1980, they had won 11 medals . The performances of the Junior team in the four-nation tournament held in Valencia was brilliant winning the finals by beating Germany 5-2. With the Junior World Cup to be held in Lucknow this year, it will be important to recognize talent and blood them into the senior team.
Indian senior team lost in the quarterfinal of the Rio Olympics after good performances in the league stage. Now the main challenge is to build a team for the World Cup 2018 and then perform well on the big stage.
