Indian men’s hockey team is arriving in New Zealand on Friday, January 12 for participating in the four nation’s tournament in Tauranga and Hamilton.
New Zealand is hosting three top-class teams including Belgium (world ranking 3rd), India (world ranking 6th), and Japan (world ranking 16th) along with Black Sticks (world ranking 9th) for the four-nation tournament this summer from January 17 to 28.
Hockey India has on Sunday, January 8, named the 20-member Indian Men’s Hockey Team who will take part in the 2018 Four Nations Invitational Tournament in New Zealand.
The team will be led by 25-year-old midfielder Manpreet Singh while Chinglensana Singh Kangujam will shoulder the responsibility of Vice Captain.
“The team continues to remain a good mix of young and experienced players. They will get to show their abilities against top quality teams. This is an important year for us with major tournaments in the pipeline, and one of our focus areas is to perform consistently especially against higher ranked teams,” Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne told the media.
Great exposure ahead of 2018 Commonwealth Games
Coach Maijne also expressed confidence that this tour will be a good exposure ahead of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018.
“We use this tour for our preparation for the Commonwealth Games and look at progressing to the next level after the previous two tournaments,” Coach Maijne further added.
In this tournament goalkeeper, P.R. Sreejesh will be making a strong comeback after nearly eight months of injury layoff. Sreejesh has missed some of the key tournaments in 2017 due to a knee injury.
Sreejesh will also be joined by young goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak a member of the 2016 Junior World Cup-winning team and who was also part of the India ‘A’ team that participated at the Australian Hockey League in September 2017.
Four players make international debut
This tournament is also important for team India as it gives an opportunity for international debut for four of its young players.
Hockey India’s High-Performance Director David John said, “This tour provides international exposure for some of our younger players in the squad with four of them making their international debut with the senior team.
“We also view this tournament as another opportunity to assess senior players’ performance under competition,” Mr John added.
Tournament layout
The team will arrive at Auckland airport on Friday, January 12 before proceeding to Tauranga.
The tournament will be split across two separate five-day series.
The Blake Park in Tauranga will host the action from January 17-21 before teams head to Gallagher Hockey Centre in Hamilton from January 24-28.
New Zealand last played Belgium and Japan at the Hockey World League Semi-Finals in Johannesburg where they recorded a 2-0 defeat and 3-1 victory respectively.
The Black Sticks will also be looking for revenge against India who came away with a 4-0 win in their last clash at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup earlier this year.
Please watch this space for more on the team’s arrival in New Zealand and the progress of tour.