Bengaluru

The Indian Men's Hockey Team on Monday left for London, United Kingdom for their away FIH Hockey Pro League 2022/23 matches in Europe starting from May 26.

The Indian team will start the first leg in London, where they will face reigning Olympic Champions Belgium (May 26 and June 2) and hosts Great Britain (May 27 and June 3). They will then travel to Eindhoven for their last set of matches against the hosts Netherlands (June 7 and 10) and Argentina (June 8 and 11).

"We have very crucial matches coming up as we get to the business end of the FIH Pro League season. We are in a strong position in the table so far and we will look to get as many points as possible in the remaining matches. We are excited about this tour as it also gives us a great opportunity to play against quality teams. These matches will be really important for us as we prepare for the all-important Asian Games scheduled later this year," Captain Harmanpreet Singh said prior to the team's departure from Bengaluru.

In their recent matches at home, India remained unbeaten against reigning World Champions Germany and Australia which helped them top the pool table. This will be India's first outing under newly-appointed Chief Coach Craig Fulton.

Speaking about the team's preparedness, Harmanpreet said, "We have had good intensive training sessions at the National Coaching Camp in SAI Centre, Bengaluru. The preparations have been really good, and our previous matches in Rourkela were a big confidence booster for us, so we will look to replicate the performance in the upcoming matches."

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"We will go step-by-step, try to play good hockey and most importantly look to keep the momentum going as we have a long tour and a busy season ahead as well," he added.