Harmanpreet & Co look to book World Cup ticket via Pro League
Bhubaneswar: Indian men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh on Friday said his team’s target is to win every FIH Pro League match and finish on top of the league to earn a direct ticket to the 2026 World Cup.
India will open their Pro League campaign against Spain on Saturday in Bhubaneswar.
They will next play Spain again the next day, followed by matches against Germany on February 16 and 19 in the opening leg of the India tour.
“Our training is going well from Hockey India League, we have been preparing for months, have learnt a lot from HIL. We have been able to maintain our fitness as well,” Harmanpreet said ahead of the Pro League opener. We just wan to play good hockey, all players in good shape and the target is to win every game (in Pro League) looking at the World Cup,” he added.
The 2026 men’s hockey World Cup will be held from August 14 to 30 in Wavre, Belgium and Amstelveen, the Netherlands.
Harmanpreet, regarded as one of the best dragflickers in the world currently, praised HIL’s top-scorer Jugraj Singh for his flicking abilities and said the rise of next generation of domestic players augur well for the national side.
“We have seen some good domestic players in HIL. It was an opportunity for youngsters and they performed well,” he said.
“It’s a building phase for us. We will look to try out things and see what best suits us. We will like to use our players’ HIL experience and integrate their learning into the team,” he said.
Women eye glory
The women’s team skipper Salima Tete wants her side to give its best in the Pro League without thinking about results, terming it a big opportunity to work on “grey areas”.
They will open their campaign against England on Saturday here. The hosts will again square off against England on Sunday before taking on Spain on February 18 and 19.
The Indian women will then play Germany (February 21 and 22), Netherlands on February 24 and 25 in the India leg of the league.
“We will focus on our game, there are some players who will be playing their first Pro League matches after Olympics. Winning and losing is a part of the game but what is important is to play our best hockey. It’s a big opportunity for us but we aren’t thinking about results. We will try our best and the focus is on every single match,” Salima said, adding, “the team culture, team bonding has increased a lot. If team culture is good, it reflects on the ground. We share a very good bonding with the coach.”
