22-05-2025
India announce team for FIH Hockey Pro League European leg, squad size reduced to 24
Hockey India has announced the men's squad for the upcoming European leg of the FIH Hockey Pro League, which is scheduled to take place in Amstelveen, the Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium from 7th to 22nd June 2025. The squad size has been reduced from 32 to 24 with Harmanpreet Singh being the captain and Hardik Singh working as his deputy. The squad size was 32 during the home leg of the tournament. advertisementIndia will begin their European leg with two matches each against the Netherlands on 7th and 9th June, followed by the double header against Argentina on 11th and 12th June in Amstelveen. This will be followed by a trip to Antwerp to take on Australia on 14th and 15th June, before facing Belgium on 21st and 22nd Full coverage
Speaking about the squad selection, coach Craig Fulton said that they were looking to add more experience this time around and the side has been training well. Fulton also said that he wants to draw a few games and take into shoot-outs and still get points on the board. 'We wanted a bit more experience in the squad this time around, and I am really happy with the selection. The team has been training well as we're looking to try and push as hard as possible and win the Pro League. Since there's qualification for the World Cup on the line, we want to try and get as many points to put ourselves in a good position for that.'advertisement'We haven't drawn any games so far in the tournament and I believe we need to turn our losses into draws and then go for a shootout, so if we don't really get the desired results, we can still get points on the board. We also need to improve our penalty corner conversion rate so yes, we've got some good objectives to try and achieve this time around,' he played the home leg of the Hockey Pro League 2024-25 in Bhubaneswar, where they got 15 points with five wins in eight games and now stand third in the points table. The top team in the Hockey Pro League will secure direct qualification to the 2026 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup. Indian Men's Hockey Team for FIH Pro League 2024-25 European Leg:GOALKEEPERS: Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj KarkeraDEFENDERS: Sumit, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Harmanpreet Singh (C), Jarmanpreet Singh, Sanjay, Yashdeep Siwach MIDFIELDERS: Raj Kumar Pal, Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh (VC), Rajinder Singh, Manpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Shamsher Singh FORWARDS: Gurjant Singh, Abhishek, Shilanand Lakra, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh
