After a historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, the Indian men’s hockey team returned to action on Tuesday with a 2-2 draw against South Korea in the Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka.
India had a two-goal lead in the match and will be disappointed with the result as Korea managed to stage a fightback.
Playing their first tournament after the historic Tokyo Olympics campaign, India started brightly and scored in the fourth minute through Lalit Kumar Upadhyay before vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner in the 18th minute to double their lead.
Trailing 0-2, Korea fought back after the change of ends and scored through Jonghyun Jang in the 41st minute and Sunghyun Kim in the 46th minute to stun the favourites and draw level.
Korea grew in confidence as the match progressed and pressed the Indian defence hard.
The Manpreet Singh-led side also had numerous chances, including penalty corners, but failed to utilise the opportunities as the match ended in a draw.
Jaehyeon Kim in front of the Korea goal was the difference between the two sides as he produced numerous brilliant saves to help his side steal a point from the game.
The last encounter between the two sides ended in a 1-1 draw in the last edition of the tournament.
India will next play hosts Bangladesh on Wednesday.
Inputs from PTI