Going into the Paris Olympics, India skipper and star drag flicker occupies second place among FIH’s leading scorers so this year; last year there were three Indians among the Top 10 leading scorers
India hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh. Pic/Hockey India
As the World No. 7 Indian men’s hockey team look to retain or better their historic Tokyo 2020 bronze medal finish at the upcoming Paris Olympics, it does not augur well for them that their skipper Harmanpreet Singh is the only Indian in FIH’s Top 10 goal-scorers this year.
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The hardworking defender and drag flick specialist is second on the global goal-scoring list with 16 goals from 22 matches so far this year, at a scoring rate of 0.73 goals per game, as per FIH’s data hub. Leading the charts is World No. 2 England’s Sam Ward with 17 goals from just 15 matches at an impressive scoring rate of 1.13. In fact, among the Top 5 leading scorers this year, Harmanpreet has the lowest goals-per-match scoring rate. At No. 3 is Malaysia’s Abu Kamal Azrai with 15 goals from 16 matches at a rate of 0.94 goals per game. In fourth spot is the World No. 1 The Netherlands’s Jip Jansen, who has netted 15 goals from 13 games at 1.15 goals per game. The fifth spot belongs to World No. 4 Australia’s Jeremy Hayward with 13 goals from 14 matches at 0.93 goals per match.
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Comparatively, Team India’s goal-scorers were a lot more prominent last year. Harmanpreet held the No. 1 position among the Top 10 goal-scorers list in 2023 with as many as 42 goals from 33 matches at a very good scoring rate of 1.27 goals per match. He also had two teammates for company. Striker Mandeep Singh was in fifth place with 18 goals from 31 matches (at 0.58 goals per game) while fellow forward Abhishek was No. 8 with 16 goals from 27 matches (at 0.58 goals per game).
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