new delhi dragflicker harmanpreet singh is a proud man after having led india to success in his maiden stint as captain of the national team in the justconcluded olympic test event in tokyoworld no 5 india rested some senior players and fielded a relatively young team for the olympic test event but still managed to lift the crown defeating new zealand 50 in the final on wednesdayit was a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved in the team to showcase what they can do with some experienced players rested for the tournament we had a fairly younger squad but it was a great chance for the youngsters to do well and i am really pleased with the way everyone stepped upthe team performed well against teams like japan malaysia and new zealand and it was an immensely proud moment for me to have led the indian mens hockey team for the very first time said the 23yearold harmanpreet who captained india in the absence of manpreet singhindia had a great start to the olympic test event as they registered a 60 win against malaysia in their opening match before losing to new zealand 12 in their second matchbut the indians came back strongly in their last roundrobin match to defeat hosts japan 63 and secure a place in the finalharmanpreet scored two goals in the tournament and both his strikes came against new zealand the first in the 12 loss in roundrobin match while the other was in the finalscoring is something that i have really worked on since the junior days to be able to help the team in scoring some important goals at crucial junctures in a match is something that motivates me even further harmanpreet saidi have worked on my dragflicking with the coaches and finally it is showing on the field as well and i am really pleased but i will continue to keep workingharmanpreet made his debut for the senior team in may 2015 against japan during a test series in bhubaneswar and went on to become one of the youngest players in the indian side that played at the 2016 rio olympic gamessince then the 23yearold has taken part in most major tournaments for india including two fih champions trophy held in 2016 and in 2018 commonwealth games and asian games in 2018 and the world cup last yearit was a great experience for me to have played at the last olympics but we came up short however the team is now quite focused on qualifying for the 2020 tokyo olympics and once we manage to do that the hard work will continue to happen as we want to achieve something huge with this current team harmanpreet signed off