India is all set to host the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2023 which starts on the 13th of January. India will be hosting the FIH Men's World Cup 2023 in Odisha.
Some sixteen countries will feature themselves in the tournament. Matches will be taking place at Bhubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium and Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium in Rourkela.
This is not the first time for either India or Odisha that they are hosting the Hockey World Cup. As the nation first hosted the 2010 edition in New Delhi. Bhubaneswar alone hosted the last edition of the event in 2018.
India will play two of the matches in Rourkela (against Spain and England respectively) and then will head to the Odisha capital to face Wales in the final pool match.
- India Vs Spain on 13 January at 7 pm.
- India Vs England on 15 January at 7 pm.
- India Vs Wales on 19 January at 7 pm.
Who all are in India's squad?
- Goalkeepers:- PR Sreejesh, Krishan Pathak.
- Defenders:- Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Nilam Sanjeep Xess.
- Midfielders:- Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akashdeep Singh.
- Forwards:- Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh.
- Alternate Players:- Rajkumar Pal, Jugraj Singh.
Manpreet Singh is the team's star player as he won bronze for India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Manpreet Singh won't be in charge this time completely as Harmanpreet Singh has been in charge of the team since last year.
India has already won eight gold medals at the Olympics. It also won the World Cup in 1975 for the first time. Ever since then, the national team has not been able to grab success in their court. 1975 was also the last time when India featured in the Semi-Finals.
Various Pools that have Lined Up:
- Pool A:- Australia, Argentina, France, and South Africa.
- Pool B:- Belgium, Germany, South Korea, and Japan.
- Pool C:- Netherlands, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Chile.
The Hockey World Cup will only allow the top team direct progress to the quarter-finals. The second and third-placed teams will play a cross-over round to decide the remaining four sports of the quarter-finals.
In the event of a tie in the pool stage, the following are the steps for breaking the tie:
- If at the end of the pool matches, two or more teams have the same number of points for any place in a pool, these teams will be ranked according to their respective number of matches won.
- Teams can be ranked according to their respective goal difference (which means 'goals for' minus 'goals against'). A positive goal difference always takes precedence over a negative one.
- Teams can also be ranked according to their respective number of 'goals for'.
- The result of the match played between the teams can also determine the ranking of the tied teams.
Belgium won the World Cup at Kalinga Stadium by defeating the Netherlands in the final shoot-out. The tournament will witness the revival of Australia in the editions again.
Let's join together to see this majestic game progress. The tournament will have it's broadcast on Star Sports Network. The live streaming of the tournament will be available on Disney+Hotstar.
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Reference:
- firstpost.com