India are all set to open their FIH Pro League campaign against New Zealand at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Friday. After finishing third last season and bagging silver at Commonwealth Games, the team will be hoping to get the new season of Pro League off to a good start especially with World Cup coming up in less than three months’ time.
Doing well in Pro League will be the team’s immediate focus but the coach as well as the players want to use these games to prepare themselves for the quadrennial event to be held in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela in January next year.
“One of the major objectives is trying to consolidate how our World Cup team looks like. The other objective is to always go out and play our best and win every game. Speaking of targets, World Cup remains our long-term goal and our short-term goal is to keep getting better between now and then,” said coach Graham Reid during a press conference on Thursday.
Like the coach, India’s newly-appointed captain Harmanpreet Singh also wants to use these matches to sharpen their skills and work on their weaknesses ahead of the big event.
“This is our first match after Commonwealth Games and our focus is to perform well from the very beginning. We know what is important for us and the areas we still need to work on. After all, these are the few matches that we have before World Cup,” said the captain at the press conference.