The seasoned striker feels that the current team is doing “wonderfully well” and is confident of their medal prospects in Tokyo.
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Yuvraj Walmiki, who is also known as the Prince of Indian hockey, is optimistic about the chances of the Indian men’s hockey team in the upcoming Olympics. He spoke about a variety of issues, including the hockey team’s medal prospects at the Tokyo Olympics among others on the latest episode of ‘SportTiger Talks’. “One thing I will definitely say is that Indian hockey right now is doing wonderfully well under (PR) Sreejesh and Manpreet (Singh),” he added.
“I still have this gut feeling, in case, Tokyo Olympics takes place, the Indian hockey team will bag a medal this time, I have this strong belief in my heart,” he said. After his early days of struggle, Yuvraj opened up about what kept him going. “I don’t have any competitors, I keep competing with myself to become a better human and work hard every day. In the end, it worked out well for me and to wear the tricolour badge on our chest is probably the biggest motivation for every sportsman,” he added.
The Indian hockey team boasts eight gold medals at the Olympics – the most by any team in the history of the Games. 2011 was a breakthrough year for him as he represented India at the Asian Champions Trophy and he starred in the final against Pakistan. Notably, India had won the tournament after defeating Pakistan in the final in a penalty shootout after regulation and extra time ended scoreless.
Yuvraj said, “When the Indian flag was being raised and the Pakistan flag was coming down, at that moment, I felt that I have done something for the country as the national flag was being raised because of me.”
He also opened up on what it meant to play in an India-Pakistan clash. “India vs Pakistan is always a special match. During that time, no strategies work because emotions themselves play such a huge role. We’ve always been tough on them,” he added.
“I do have friends from the Pakistan hockey team as well. When it comes to the game, we’ll all meet up nicely but when we put our foot on the ground, we don’t see left or right, we just focus on winning that match because we can’t lose against them at any cost.”
A big fan of former India captain Dhanraj Pillay, Yuvraj has also played in the German Hockey League for eight years. Besides, he has played a total of 52 matches and scored 14 goals for India. He was an important member of the 2014 Hockey World Cup team in the Netherlands.
