Bhubaneswar 22 November : .India met Pakistan on the first day of the Senior Men’s Hockey World Cup 2010.
Pakistan was ranked seventh in the FIH Rankings, while India was ranked twelveth. The tables were turned when the Pakistani team visited India to participate in the 2018 World Cup at Bhubaneswar.
India was now ranked 5th and Pakistan 13th, respectively.
As the Pakistani junior hockey team arrived in Odisha to take part in the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup in Odisha, India is ranked number three in the world.
Pakistan is number 18
When Mohammad Danish Kaleem’s squad, skipper Abdul Rana, takes to the field for their first match against Germany, they will have a heavy burden.They must prove that while Pakistani hockey has been in decline over the past decade, they still have the potential to emerge from the ashes.
Danish Kaleem stated that although there were many factors behind the declining popularity of Pakistani hockey, things are improving.The decline in Pakistani hockey was partly due to the fact that the recruitment of departmental teams, which had been a key part of developing their game, had stopped for a while.
The Pakistani government has encouraged the departments to recruit players.If the players have the chance to compete in high-level events, Pakistan’s hockey can recover,” stated Danish Kaleem who was a representative of his country at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where the team placed sixth.
As the Pool’s other participants in the 2021 Junior World Cup, Pakistan is in Pool D along with Argentina, Germany and Egypt.The neighbours will have a difficult time reaching the knockout stages, as Argentina and Germany are higher than them.
Danish stated that the Indian team arrived with high expectations.He is optimistic about the performance of the players.The players were fit, he said.They have also played some excellent preparation matches against Pakistan’s senior hockey team as well as some of the top domestic teams.
We have held tournaments since the Covid-19 break and the boys who performed well were invited to camp.There were many camps that lasted 3-4 weeks, with short breaks in between.
Danish spoke at a Hockey India virtual press conference on Monday.He said that the boys had done well, and that he was confident they will finish on top.
According to him, the weather won’t be an issue for the boys because they have been to camps in Karachi where it is almost the same as Bhubaneswar.Danish, who was present with Pakistan’s senior team at the 2018 World Cup held in Bhubaneswar, said that he had told them what to expect from this tournament.
Abdul Rana, the captain of the Pakistan team said that the long camps helped him get to know his players better and believe they are able to compete at the highest level.
The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted preparations, just as it did for other teams all over the globe.
He said that he was confident in his boys’ preparations and would perform well at the junior world cup.
In 1979, Pakistan won the first Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup.They were a formidable force in this event until 1993, when they took home a silver medal.Since 1993, they have not reached the semifinals.
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