Hockey match in Delhi after 10 years, Indian team intends to get a great opportunity to take revenge from world champion Germany.

International hockey will return to the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium after ten years and in the first match of the two-Test series against world champion Germany on Wednesday, the Olympic bronze medalist Indian team will look to avenge the defeat in the Olympic semi-finals. An international hockey match has not been played in Delhi since 2013.

The last time the Hero World League final was held here was in 2014, although inter-departmental matches are held occasionally. Recently, the Women’s Inter-Departmental National Championship was also played. Both the matches against the world number two team and Paris Olympic silver medalist Germany have the potential to make the return of hockey on this ground memorable.

According to sources, more than 12000 fans have registered for free tickets on a private ticket portal. The capacity of the National Stadium is 16400 spectators. The Indian team is full of confidence after winning bronze medals in Tokyo and Paris Olympics. In Paris, the Indian team, captained by Harmanpreet Singh, lost to Germany 2-3 in a close match in the semi-finals. Harmanpreet Singh had said after the announcement of the Test series, “This series is not only a match between two teams but also the return of hockey in Delhi. We hope that this will attract more and more youth towards hockey.

It is not easy to defeat defending world champions Germany, who had taken the Paris Olympics gold medal match against the Netherlands to a shootout. In the rankings, Germany is second and India is fifth but in modern hockey the top five teams have the ability to defeat each other at any time. India has won three out of the last five matches between the two teams. After the Paris Olympics, in September, India won the Asian Champions Trophy for the fifth time by defeating host China 1-0. India have a good mix of young and experienced players as coach Craig Fulton eyes the Los Angeles Olympics 2028.

Defender and drag-flicker Varun Kumar has returned to the team after being out of action due to allegations of sexual harassment by a junior volleyball player. He has got a clean chit. India will miss Hardik Singh in the midfield, who has not recovered from the injury suffered during the Paris Olympics. Fulton has given debut to midfielder Rajinder Singh and striker Aditya Arjun Lalge. The midfield will be commanded by experienced Manpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad and Lalit Upadhyay. The forward line consists of Mandeep Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Abhishek and Dilpreet Singh. After the retirement of PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Suraj Karkera are handling the responsibility of goalkeeping.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top