Hardik Singh Brings Up 200 Caps on the Night India Lift a Sixth Asian Champions Trophy
Some players pick up milestones quietly. Hardik Singh got his in front of a packed home crowd, in a final, on the ground where it all started.
The 28-year-old midfielder played his 200th senior international on Thursday night as India beat Japan 4-1 in the Asian Champions Trophy final at the Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium in Mohali. Before the match, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann presented him with a special jersey carrying the number 200.
Mohali is Hardik’s home turf in every sense. He came through the academy there as a trainee, and he was a ball boy at the same ground during the 2013 Hockey India League. Eight years after his senior debut in 2018, he brought up the double century in a continental final on it. That doesn’t happen often.
Hardik has been the link man in India’s midfield through the best stretch in the team’s modern history. Two Olympic bronzes, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. Asian Games gold at Hangzhou in 2023, and again at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan. Asian Champions Trophy gold in 2018 and 2023, bronze in 2021, and now a third straight title with this one. Asia Cup gold in 2025.
The individual honours stack up too. He won the Arjuna Award in 2021 and was named FIH Player of the Year in 2023.
Hockey India president Dr Dilip Tirkey led the congratulations. “Congratulations to Hardik Singh on completing 200 senior international appearances,” he said, praising a midfielder who has held India’s middle together through two Olympic cycles.
He was right in the thick of the final too. Japan led early through Kazumasa Matsumoto, and India only turned it around in the last 18 minutes, with Shilanand Lakra, Dilpreet Singh, Jugraj Singh and Sukhjeet Singh all scoring. Dilpreet’s go-ahead goal in the 48th minute came from a move Hardik started, winning the ball back after his first pass was blocked and sliding it through.
Hardik wasn’t the only one collecting numbers in Mohali. Captain Harmanpreet Singh finished the tournament with 10 goals, taking his senior international tally to 250, and he was named Hero of the Tournament. Goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak took the Goalkeeper of the Tournament award.
And it was a farewell as well as a milestone night. Nilakanta Sharma played his last match in Indian colours, retiring from internationals after 163 caps and 20 goals, with a Tokyo bronze among his medals.
India don’t have long to enjoy this one. The next stop is Auckland for the Slumberzone Centenary Cup against New Zealand later this month, three invitational matches at Lloyd Elsmore Park from 19 November. Coach Craig Fulton has said the squad will be named in the coming days, and he’s already talked about this tour as the start of the build towards the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Hardik, on this form and at 28, will be central to that. Two hundred caps is a big number. The way he’s playing, it won’t be the last one that matters.
