NEW DELHI: The Indian men's hockey team has been crowned the Team of the Year at the Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) 2021. An Olympic medal after 41 years -- bronze at the Tokyo Games was among the biggest achievements for men's hockey in 2021.

For the Team of the Year award, the men's hockey team had their women's counterpart, the Indian men's cricket team and the national men's football team as the fellow nominees but the Manpreet Singh and co. were given the award in a unanimous decision.

With the bronze at the 2021 Olympics, the team brought a new dawn in Indian hockey. The team had a terrific Tour of Europe in 2021 where they stayed unbeaten against Germany and Great Britain.

A bronze at the men's Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka and a third place finish at the FIH Pro League (from October 2021 to June 2022) were the other major highlights of the Indian hockey team that swung the Team of the Year award in their favour.
The TOISA jury that picked the men's hockey team for the award included cricket all-rounder and member of the 1983 World Cup winning team Madan Lal, Olympic medal winning shooter Gagan Narang, former hockey captain and Haryana sports minister Sandeep Singh, veteran Indian athlete Anju Bobby George who was the first Indian athlete to win an athletics World Championships medal, Paralympic Games silver medallist Deepa Malik and Olympic medal winning boxer Vijender Singh.