Bangalore: Indian men's hockey team captain Manpreet Singh is of the opinion that the Belgium tour will serve as a litmus test for the team ahead Olympic qualifiers, which are scheduled to take place in November.
Exclusive interview with Manpreet Singh In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Manpreet said, "The tour of Belgium will be very important for Indian hockey team as Belgium are currently world no. 2 side and playing against them will help us improve our game."
"We will try to give our best during Belgium tour and implement things that we have learnt during practice sessions so that we can know our strengths and weaknesses," Manpreet added.
Also, Indian men’s team has been pitted against lower-ranked Russia in the final round of the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers. The men’s team will play back-to-matches against Russia in Bhubaneswar on November 1 and 2 to make it to the Tokyo Games.
Talking about the same, Manpreet said, "Currenly our priority is to win qualifying matches against Russia and we can't underestimate them because they also want to qualify for the Olympics."
Meanwhile, the men’s hockey team will start their tour of Belgium with their first match against Belgium on Thursday, 26th September 2019 at 1630 hrs IST in Antwerp, following which they will play two matches against Spain on 28th and 29th September 2019 at the same venue.
Lalit Kumar Upadhyay will be making a comeback to the side after last year’s World Cup in Odisha, while Rupinder Pal Singh, who missed out on the Olympic Test Event, also makes a return to the team.
