All you need to know about Indian Men's hockey at Commonwealth Games 2022

Indian Team will start their campaign on 31st July against Ghana.

Field hockey at the XXII Commonwealth Games (CWG) will kick start on 29th July 2022. This is the seventh staging of the sport at the Games since its introduction in 1998. The tournament will be played at the University of Birmingham Hockey and Squash Centre. In this piece, let us take a look at everything you need to know about the Indian hockey team that is set to compete in the Men's Hockey event at CWG2022.

In the six editions that have taken place, the Indian men’s team has won two silver medals in 2010 and 2014. The team finished fourth in the previous edition in Gold Coast in 2018, falling short to England in the bronze medal match. But a lot has changed since then for the Indian hockey team, having stamped their authority by winning the bronze at Tokyo 2021.

Australia have dominated the event, winning gold in all six editions. Neighbours New Zealand have secured two silvers and a bronze while England have three bronze medals to their name.

Hockey at CWG 2022

10 teams will be competing at the Birmingham Games. The teams are divided into two groups of five where they will compete in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals while the remaining teams move to the classification round fighting for spots from 5th to 10th.

The two groups are as follows:

Pool A – Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, Scotland

Pool B – India, England, Canada, Wales, Ghana

India, under the watchful eyes of Graham Reid, will begin their campaign on 31st July against Ghana. After an impressive Olympic Games and FIH Pro League campaign, the team will look to win its first gold at the Commonwealth Games.

India’s squad for CWG 2022:

Coach Graham Reid has named an 18-member squad for the Games led by midfielder Manpreet Singh.

Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Krishan Pathak

Defenders: Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh (vice-captain), Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Singh, Varun Kumar, Jugraj Singh

Midfielders: Manpreet Singh (captain), Vivek Prasad Sagar, Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Shamsher Singh, Akashdeep Singh

Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Abhishek, Gurjant Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay

India’s schedule at CWG 2022:

31st July (Pool B) – India vs Ghana

1st August (Pool B) – England vs India

3rd August (Pool B) – India vs Canada

4th August (Pool B) – Wales vs India

India had recently participated in last leg of the FIH Pro League 2021-22 in the Netherlands, where they faced strong teams such as Belgium and the Netherlands. India finished third, behind the Netherlands and Belgium. Captain Manpreet Singh had recently said that the team is learning from the lessons learnt during the tournament and are well prepared for Birmingham 2022.

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