Indian men’s hockey team gear up for World Hockey League semi-final as they head from Germany to London

Manpreet Singh in action

On June 9, the Indian Men’s Team will arrive in London for the much-awaited Hero World League semifinal (Men) on the back of a good learning experience at the three nations invitational tournament held in Germany which concluded yesterday.

The upcoming World League Semi Final is a much anticipated and important tournament for the team, where they are grouped in Pool B along with Canada, Scotland, Netherlands and Pakistan. India begin their campaign against Scotland on June 15. India’s second match will be against Canada on June 17, and third match against Pakistan on June 18. They will then finally play World No.4 the Netherlands on June 20.

“We will also play two practice matches against Argentina and England. This will be a good opportunity for us to work on our challenges and focus areas of improvement identified whilst having played against Germany and Belgium. We cannot afford to miss out on goal scoring chances and we need to improve our conversion rate," observed team captain Manpreet.

He adds that the team's goal is to finish in the Top 2 in London where other high ranking teams like Argentina, Netherlands, England, Korea and Malaysia too will contest for top honours. "While our aim is to finish top 2 in London, it’s important we play match by match and not take any team lightly especially in the pool stage. Our focus will be on getting off to a winning start and carry on the momentum from there,” stated Manpreet.  

Having recent practice against tall standing teams like Belgium and Germany and further practice matches in London against current world No. 1 Argentina and England is a great opportunity for the team to iron out their weak spots and play a strategic and well-nuanced game against each competitor.