India will eye redemption when they take on newly-crowed world champions Germany in their FIH Men's Hockey Pro League fixture in Rourkela on Friday. (More Hockey News)
Led by star drag-fl✱icker Harmanpreet Singh, the Indian team h🔴ad made a shock last-16 exit in the World Cup held in January.
"Every match at this stage is challenging for us, especially when the oppositions are Aust♏ralia and Germany," said the Ind✃ia skipper, who is currently one of the three joint top-scorers in the tournament.
"Hoꦜwever, it’s go🔴od for us that we are getting to play such challenging matches as our focus is on Asian Games. So, we will make sure that we improve as a team by playing such games and give our best in the future,” Harmanpreet added.
India were at their wasteful best and failed to make use of their most circle entries (155) in the World𓃲 Cup.
"In the camp (in Bengaluru) we spoke and worked on it. T꧟o make sure we have three targets and if we are not able to do that, we need to focus on keeping the ball and not giving it away cheaply. The main focus is on handling pressure and improving our decision-making,” he said.
This is India's first match after the departure of Graham Reid. Craig Fulton was named as the🎉ir coach but the South African is expected to join the team later.
Interim coaches David John and BJ Kariappa will be at the helm for th൲e four mಞatches.
Following their World Cup debacle, India have axed senior players Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh and Amit Rohid🤪as, while goalkeeper Krishan Pathak will be missing due to his wedding.
Having elevated to vice-captaincy, Hardik Singh said India will tweak their strategy, but their core values will rema🔥in the same.
“There will be minor changes to our strategy, but o🐼ur core values and principles of t🐻he team will remain the same. Also, we will not only focus on our attacking style of play, but also work on keeping the possession,” Hardik said.
India, who are currently fourth in the points tally, hosted New Zealand and Spain at the Kalinga Stadium last year i꧒n October in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2022/2023.
They kicked off their campaign with a superb 4-3 and 7-4 win against New Zealand, followed by a 3-2 loss 🌊and a 2-2 ಌdraw against Spain.
On the other hand, Germany who are ranked fifth in the Pro League with eight points from four games, wi🌊ll be oozing with confidence having won the World Cup.
Led by Ma꧃ts Grambusch, the German team will aim to continue their 🧸rich vein of form and will be eager to put their best foot forward against the hosts.
However, Grambus🙈ch believes that the World Cup win is now a thing of the past and the team needs to keep working on becoming better with each passing dﷺay.
“All our matches in the World Cup 2023 were really close as we won our qua𒉰rterfinal and final games through shootouts𓂃.
"✱;We secured victory in the semi-final in the last few seconds of the game. So, considering that there will be many competing games against some good teams like Au﷽stralia, India, Belgium, and Netherlands in the lead up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, we have to improve what we can improve and that’s going to be our focus,” Grambusch said.
Rourkela will host all six matches, where India, Germany, and Australia will play each🍎 other twice.
