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Bengaluru, May 22 (PTI) Indian men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh said the Asian Games will be the focus of his team’s European tour of Pro League matches starting May 26. The Asian Games is the Olympic qualifying event for hockey.
The team left for London on Monday for the first leg of the European tour, where they will face Olympic champions Belgium (May 26 and June 2) and hosts Great Britain (May 27 and June 3).
The team will then travel to Eindhoven for their matches against Netherlands (June 7 and 10) and Argentina (June 8 and 11).
India top the table in the nine-team Pro-League tournament with 19 points from eight matches. United also have the same number of points but are second on the table due to goal difference.
Harmanpreet said that these matches will play an important role in India’s preparation for the Asian Games to be held in September. The Asian Games gold medalist team will automatically qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Harmanpreet said before the team’s departure for the UK, “Our matches will be very important as we move towards the last phase of the Pro League season. We are in a strong position in the table so far and we will try to get as many points as possible in the remaining matches.
The Indian captain said, “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.
India remained unbeaten against defending world champions Germany and Australia in this season of the Pro League, helping them finish on top of the points table.
This will be the team’s first tour under new head coach Craig Fulton.
Harmanpreet said, “We have gone through rigorous training sessions at the national coaching camp at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Bangalore campus. Our preparation has been really good. We had done well in our previous matches at Rourkela and it was a confidence booster. In such a situation, we would like to repeat that performance.
Pc:Navabharat (नवभारत)
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