The opening match of the Men’s Hockey Pro League will be played in a two-legged tie on January 18 and 19 between India and Netherlands. The game will be played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar with the first legged beginning at 7:00 OM IST on Jan 18 followed by the second leg on Jan 19 at 5:00 PM IST.
The Netherlands ended the previous season of the league with a bronze medal and are known as the World No. 3 while India is known as the World No. 5. The teams last met each other in the year 2018 at the same venue during the World Cup quarterfinals. However, it was the day for the Netherlands as they handed a 2-1 defeat to the Men in Blue.
With the upcoming face-off, the teams will try their best to get their hands laid on victory and get ready for the soon approaching Olympics 2020.
Probable Playing XI
India
PR Sreejesh, Harmanpreet Singh (VC), Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh (Captain), Vivek Sagar Prasad, Chinglensana Singh, Gurjant Singh, S V Sunil, Mandeep Singh, Gursahibjit Singh,
Netherlands
Pirmin Blaak, Lars Balk, Glenn Schuurman, Jip Janssen, Billy Bakker (Captain), Jonas de Geus, Diede van Puffelen, Thierry Brinkman, Thijs van Dam, Jeroen Hertzberger, Bjorn Kellerman
Key Players
India
Mandeep Singh
Chinglensana Singh
Netherlands
Billy Bakker
Lars Balk
