India’s Asia Cup triumph a small step ahead of bigger challenges

India’s biggest test will be at the World League Finals in Bhubaneswar in just over a month's time, when they will be up against all the top nations.

by Mihir Vasavda


India hockey team won the Aisa Cup title after 10 years. (Source: PTI)

Dipsan Tirkey was just seven when India last won the Asia Cup. Back then, he did not even know what hockey was. Regardless, he joined the rest of his town, Sundergarh, in celebrating the win orchestrated by two Tirkeys — Prabodh, then captain, and Dilip. It was a subtle initiation to the sport, which would gradually turn into an obsession to emulate his idols. A decade on, he’s taken a small step towards that. The latest Tirkey to have emerged from the seemingly endless supply line of technically-gifted defenders from the tribal belt in and around Odisha might not have been as influential as Prabodh and Dilip, but he played a crucial role in India lifting the Asia Cup for the first time since 2007 by beating Malaysia 2-1 in the final on Sunday.