Indian Men’s Hockey Team Achieve their Highest Ever Rankings

indian men hockey team

The Indian men’s team achieved their highest ever rankings of number 4 after impressive performances in debut Pro League season since its inception since 2003. It comes at the expense of the 2016 Rio Olympics champions Argentina. Manpreet Singh led side had a great outing in first three rounds defeating the Netherlands twice, Belgium and Australia once. In the matches they lost, the Indian team gave a good fight and created pressure on the opponent teams with aggressive play.

India started their Pro League campaign with 6-2 win over the Netherlands in the first match played at Kalinga Stadium, Bhuvneshwar on 18th. In the second leg, India were trailing 1-3 but came back strongly in the fourth quarter to level the scores at 3-3. In the penalty shootout, India won the match by 3-1.

indian mens hockey

In the 2nd match against Belgium played on 8th February at Kalinga Stadium, Bhuvneshwar, India stunned runners up of Rio Olympics Belgium 2-1. India went down fighting against Belgium in 2nd leg with a 2-3 margin.

India produced a good performance against defending Champions of Pro League Australia in the first league of their third match played on 21st February by 3-4 margin after being 1-4 down. In the 2nd leg played at Kalinga Stadium, Bhuvneshwar the next day, India drew the match at 2-2 and PR Sreejesh superb efforts helped India win the match by 3-1.

Currently they are at number 4 in Pro Hockey League with 10 points from 6 matches with 2 wins, 2 loss, 2 points with shootout wins. It is a good achievement from the men’s hockey team who will be looking to prove their worth in the upcoming matches against strong teams like New Zealand, Argentina, England, Spain, Germany.

Belgium who defeated Australia in January this year in Sydney wrestled the number 1 position to remain at the points table. Australia and Netherlands hold number 2 and 3 spots in the latest rankings.

India will take on Germany in fourth-round matches on 25th and 26th April 2020 in Berlin.