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Bengaluru : The Indian men’s hockey team on Monday left for London, United Kingdom for the FIH Hockey Pro League 2022/23 matches in Europe starting May 26.
The Indian team will begin the first leg in London, where they will face defending Olympic champions Belgium (May 26 and June 2) and hosts Great Britain (May 27 and June 3). They will then travel to Eindhoven for their last set of matches against the hosts Netherlands (June 7 and 10) and Argentina (June 8 and 11).
Before the team’s departure from Bengaluru, Captain Harmanpreet Singh said, “We have very important matches coming up at the end of the FIH Pro League season. We are in a strong position in the table so far and we will look to get as many points as possible in the remaining matches. We are excited about this tour as it also gives us a great opportunity to play against good teams. These matches will be really important for us as we prepare for the important Asian Games later this year.”
In their recent matches at home, India remained unbeaten against world champions Germany and Australia, helping them top the pool table. This will be India’s first tour under newly appointed head coach Craig Fulton.
Talking about the team’s preparations, Harmanpreet said, “We have had good intensive training sessions at the National Coaching Camp held at the Sai Center in Bengaluru. The preparation has been really good, and our last match in Rourkela was a big confidence booster for us, so we will look to repeat this performance in the upcoming matches.”
“We will take it step by step, try to play good hockey and most importantly keep our momentum going as we have a long tour and a busy season ahead,” he added.
The Indian men’s hockey team will resume their FIH Pro League 2022/23 campaign against Belgium on May 26 at 07:10 PM IST.
The schedule of FIH Pro League 2022-2023 matches in Europe is as follows:
26 May 2023, India vs Belgium.
27 May 2023, India vs Great Britain.
2 June 2023, India vs Belgium.
3 June 2023, India vs Great Britain.
7 June 2023, India vs Netherlands.
8 June 2023, India vs Argentina.
10 June 2023, India vs Netherlands.
11 June 2023, India vs Argentina.