In a remarkable campaign, India secured the Asian Champions Trophy title for a record fifth time, remaining unbeaten throughout the tournament in Hulunbuir, China.
The Indian hockey team scored 26 goals, with 18 of those coming from field efforts, showcasing a significant improvement from their Olympic performance in Paris.
This success follows criticism from current and former players, including goalkeeper P R Sreejesh, who emphasised the need for more field goals to enhance India's competitiveness in international hockey.
During the Olympics, India scored a total of 15 goals, with only three originating from field play.
And in this incredible campaign, Harmanpreet Singh and his men pumped in 18 field goals out of a total of 26 on-target strikes in the tournament.
Among those who stressed on the need for more field goals was P R Sreejesh, star goalkeeper who called it quits after the Games.
India chief coach Craig Fulton fielded a relatively young side for the Asian Champions Trophy, resting experienced forwards like Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay.
The only two strikers from the Paris squad who retained their place in the were Abhishek and Sukhjeet Singh.
Fulton brought in young blood like former junior team skipper Uttam Singh, Araijeet Singh Hundal and Gurjot Singh.
And the new lot didn't disappoint.
The younger forward line scored 11 field goals.
While Uttam found the net four times in the tournament -- three from field efforts and one from an indirect penalty corner, Hundal (3), Sukhjeet (3) and Abhishek (2) also did their bit much to the delight of chief coach Fulton.
If that was not enough, the most heartening performance was from skipper and drag-flicker Harmanpreet (2) and defender Jugraj Singh (1), who also scored field goals.
Harmanpreet ended as the second-highest scorer in the tournament behind China's Jihun Yang (9) with seven strikes, five of which came from penalty corners.
Jugraj also scored two goals -- one from a penalty corner and the other a rare field goal that handed India the title-clinching 1-0 win over hosts China on Tuesday.
To the delight of the Indian coaching staff, young mid-fielder Raj Kumar Pal shone brightly in the tournament, scoring three field goals while defender Jarmanpreet Singh also similarly found the net once.
India scored the maximum number of 26 goals, followed by arch-rivals Pakistan (18), Korea (17), Malaysia (17), Japan (15) and China (10) in the six-team competition.
It was a marked improvement and Fulton hopes for the trend to continue in the upcoming tournaments.
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