Gautam Gambhir Congratulates The Indian Hockey Team; Terms the Win as Bigger Than Cricket World Cup Wins

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has made a big statement regarding India’s win in the bronze medal match against Germany in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020. He said the victory is bigger than any of the cricket World cup wins India has managed to achieve.

Earlier in the day, the hockey team defeated Germany 5-4 to claim their first Olympic medal in the sport after 41 long-awaited years. It was a tremendous achievement from the team, especially after losing the semifinal to Belgium a couple of days ago.

Gautam Gambhir Congratulates The Indian Hockey Team

Gambhir congratulated the hockey team and termed it as a win that’s bigger than the Indian Cricket Team’s 1983, 2007, and 2011 World Cup wins. On his official Twitter account, the 39-year-old wrote:

“Forget 1983, 2007, or 2011, this medal in Hockey is bigger than any World Cup! #IndianHockeyMyPride”.

Forget 1983, 2007 or 2011, this medal in Hockey is bigger than any World Cup! #IndianHockeyMyPride ?? pic.twitter.com/UZjfPwFHJJ

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) August 5, 2021

The win would have felt sweeter for India as they successfully turned around a 1-3 deficit against Germany. Both the teams adopted an attacking approach right from the get-go which resulted in a few holes in the backline. As a result, plenty of goals were scored by both teams, with the Men in Blue eventually coming out on top.

With the bronze medal win, India became the most successful country in Olympics Hockey history, totaling 12 medals (8G 1S 3B). They sneaked ahead of Germany, which had earlier collected 11 medals in Olympics.

Gautam Gambhir was India’s top-scorer in the finals of the 2007 and 2011 World Cups

Gambhir played a pivotal role in both the 2007 and 2011 World Cups. He was India’s top scorer in the finals on both occasions. Against Pakistan in the 2007 T20 World Cup final, he hit a brilliant 75 which took India to the match-winning score that they defended eventually.

Similarly, during the 2011 ODI World Cup final against Sri Lanka, India was chasing 276 with both Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag back in the hut. However, Gambhir played the role of the anchor at one end and was later joined by MS Dhoni to form the match-winning partnership. Although the left-hander fell just three runs short of his century, skipper Dhoni made sure India claimed victory against their Asian rivals.