Pro League: Harmanpreet & Co look to shine away from home

Amstelveen: The Indian men’s hockey team will look to produce its best and earn maximum points from the European leg of the FIH Pro League in a bid to secure a direct qualification to next year’s World Cup.

The next World Cup will be jointly hosted by Belgium and Netherlands.

The Harmanpreet Singh-led side is currently placed third in the FIH Pro League standings with 15 points from eight matches, behind Belgium (16) and England (16).

Good results in the upcoming eight matches of the European leg can propel India to the top, which means a direct berth in the World Cup.

India played the home leg of the ongoing Pro League in Bhubaneswar earlier this year, where they raked up 15 points with five wins in eight games.

In the European leg, first up for India are hosts Netherlands here on Saturday followed by the return leg match on June 9.

The Indians will next play Argentina here on June 11 and 12, followed by matches against Australia (June 14, 15) and Belgium (June 21, 22).

India will be led by talismanic dragflicker Harmanpreet, while midfield mainstay Hardik Singh will be his deputy.

The Indians will take on Belgium at their home turf in Antwerp.

Keeping the magnitude of the matches in mind, India have fielded an experienced 24-member squad for the leg.

Chief coach Craig Fulton has opted for experience instead of trying out youngsters.“I think it’s pretty clear that this is one of the ways of securing qualification for the World Cup. So we are definitely putting that as a priority to qualify through the Pro League,” Fulton said.

“Obviously if it doesn’t work out we have the Asia Cup in August in India but we have been working hard for this and we really want to try and finish as high as we possibly can and get on the podium.”

The coach admitted that there are a few grey areas the team needs to address, including penalty corner conversion rate.