Honoured to be compared with Dhoni but I'm not as calm as him: Harmanpreet

Asian Games 2023winning Indian mens hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh doesnt fancy comparisons with the legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni and feels he is not as calm on the ground as the cricket legendHarmanpreet who led the team from the front and returned as the top scorer in the Asian Games with 13 goals has been compared to Dhoni by hockey great Dhanraj Pillay but the star dragflicker begs to differOn the ground I am never calm I am aggressive unlike Dhoni but off the field I try to remain as calm as possible Harmanpreet said during a visit to PTI headquarters here on TuesdayAlso ReadICC World Cup 2023 India vs Afghanistan heres all you need to knowDhoni who led India to the 2011 ODI World Cup title is known as Captain Cool for his calm demeanour during pressure situationsHarmanpreet feels aggressiveness on the hockey turf comes to him naturally but he is honoured to have been compared with DhoniAggressiveness is must in my game but I am honoured to have been compared with the great Dhoni But I dont feel I that calm on the pitchThe ticket to Paris Olympic secured the monkey is off the back of the India mens hockey team and a relieved Harmanpreet has now trained his eyes on bettering the colour of the medal they won in Tokyo in next years Paris GamesA dominant India thrashed Japan 51 in the final to clinch their fourth Asian Games gold medal in Hangzhou on last Friday thereby directly qualifying for Paris OlympicsWith the pressure of qualification off its back Harmanpreet said the team can focus on preparations for next years quadrennial extravaganzaAs a player you are never satisfied you know your dream If you win a gold medal next time you will again try to repeat the feat That is precisely on our mindLast time we experienced the pressure of not qualifying directly for the Olympics Now our mind is clear and we know we have qualified Now we have time to prepare for the Olympics without thinking about qualification and give our best shot at bettering our Tokyo performanceIndia won a historic Olympic bronze in Tokyo their first podium finish in 41 years since the gold medal in Moscow back in 1980Harmanpreet is happy with the bonding between players and progress of Indian hockey saying competition for places augurs well for the gameThe good thing about team is we have open conversations There is plenty of competition in the camp and every player in the core group is good A player who is not selected also inspires and says if you have been given the responsibility so go and perform They dont think they are dropped although it is there in the back of the mindAll the players are aggressive fight against each other support each other because most of the time we stay together in camps away from our families We share everything with each other he saidHarmanpreet feels their feats will motivate youngsters to pick up the hockey stick We know youngsters are looking up to us they are picking up hockey sticks after being inspired by our feats and it is our responsibility to keep on performing and motivating the next generation We just want to give our best in every match in every tournamentHockey India president Dilip Tirkey who also visited PTI headquarters along with Harmanpreet veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh womens team captain Savita Punia ad defender Sushila Chanu the presence of quality dragflickers has made India a potent force in world hockeyThis time we got to see consistent performance from the team We were never under pressure in any match Against Korea in the semifinal we were little taken by shock but the players stood up and delivered Tirkey saidIn the past we had good teams quality players but what we lacked is a dragflicker Pakistan that time had Sohail Abbas but now we have quality dragflickers in Harmanpreet Amit Rohidas Varun Kumar We didnt get quality dragflickers in our timeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever