The Indian men’s hockey team will be back in action on Friday when they take on Pakistan in their penultimate FIH Pro League game at London’s Lee Valley Hockey and Centre.
Craig Fulton’s team will return to the pitch less than 24 hours after their match against England, which they lost 4-1 in the shootout after the scoreline read 2-2 at the end of the normal time.
Dilpreet Singh (10′ and 58′) scored an impressive brace for India while David Goodfield (29′) and Nicholas Bandurak (56′) were on the scoresheet for England on Thursday. Thomas Sorsby, James Albery and captain Zachary Wallace converted their attempts in the shootout for the hosts, besides one attempt that led to a penalty stroke, which was also scored off by Wallace. For India, only Harmanpreet Singh converted in the shootout while Sukhjeet Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad missed their chances.
India are still ranked second from bottom in the league after 14 points from 14 games. Meanwhile, Pakistan are last on the table having lost all their 14 games this season.
The two teams met earlier in the week with India eking out a 4-3 win. It was a tight match with both teams enjoying opportunities to score. Pakistan defended deep and looked threatening during their counter-attacks. All three of their goals came from penalty corners while India relied on goals from Abhishek, Nilakanta Sharma, Sukhjeet Singh and Rajinder Singh.
Fulton will look for improvements in the defence, especially in the penalty corners department as both Pakistan and England have caused them problems by scoring goals from set-pieces.
After the game against Pakistan, India will end their season with the final match against England on June 28. It’s a crucial year for the team as they are set to feature in two big tournaments in World Cup and Asian Games.
India vs Pakistan will start at 10:30 p.m. IST.
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