The Indian hockey team has been handed a tough draw in the Hockey World League Final, which is going to be held in Bhubaneswar from December 1 to 10, reported PTI on Thursday.
Placed in Pool B, India will face current world champions Australia and the reigning Olympic bronze medallist Germany. They will also face England who bagged the bronze medal at the Euro Hockey Nations Championship.
According to the schedule announced by the International Hockey Federation on Thursday, India will open their campaign against Australia on December 1 before facing England (December 2) and Germany (December 4).
Pool A, meanwhile, consists of Olympic champions Argentina, European champions Netherlands, Olympic silver medallist Belgium and Spain.
European rivals Germany and England will open the competition at the Kalinga Stadium before India face Australia.
In what is being billed as ‘Super Saturday’, December 2 is set to be a thriller with some high-octane clashes. A rerun of the 2016 Olympic gold medal match between Argentina and Belgium along with India facing England will be the matches to watch out for.
The Pool stages will run from December 1-5 and will be followed by the quarter-finals on December 6-7.
Following that classification matches, the semi-finals will take place over the next two days before the bronze medal match and the final on December 10.
Pools:
Pool A: Argentina, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain
Pool B: Australia, India, Germany, England
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