The Indian men’s hockey team will look to continue their experiments and test their bench strength ahead of a busy calendar year despite their second loss of the tournament against Argentina in the two-legged FIH Pro League tie starting here on Saturday. ,
The Indians suffered their second loss in the FIH Pro League, losing 3-5 to Spain in the second leg at the Kalinga Stadium here on February 27.
Another defeat for Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist India was against France (2-5) last month.
But despite this, India are currently second in the standings with 12 points from six matches, including four wins over the Netherlands (16 points).
India head coach Graham Reid continued to test his reserve players to broaden the team base ahead of this year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, which are qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Midfielder Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, a member of the FIH Junior World Cup squad, will make his debut against world number six Argentina. The home team will also make a comeback after a brief injury to Olympic medalist striker Gurjant Singh.
The Indians have also made some changes in the main team since the match against Spain. Goalkeeper Krishna Bahadur Pathak has replaced Suraj Karkera, while Amit Rohidas and Jugraj Singh have replaced Mandeep Mor and Deepson Tirkey in the backline.
Jaskaran Singh and Akshdeep Singh made room for Sumit and Rabichandra in midfield.
The Indian think tank continued to rely on young strikers Abhishek and Sukhjit Singh and drag-flicker Jugraj Singh.
In fact, the Indian team management has named Amit Rohidas as captain and Mandeep Singh as deputy in place of Manpreet Singh for this tie to broaden the team’s leadership group ahead of the crucial year.
The Indians have been hit hard by late goals in both the defeats and going forward, the team’s backline will have to raise their game by leaps and bounds to take on stronger opponents.
Argentina, on the other hand, are sixth with nine points from four matches.
The visitors will be full of confidence after beating England 2-0 and 3-1 in their previous match.
Los Leones also defeated Olympic champions Belgium 2-1 in the return leg 0-2.
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