Rourkela: India started off their Hockey World Cup 2022 campaign with a 2-0 win over Spain on Friday. Amit Rohidas and Hardik Singh netted a goal each for the Men in Blue to help them clinch all the three points on offer. The focus now shifts towards their second Pool D fixture against England who are themselves coming on the back of a 5-0 win over Wales.

Even though both India and England won their respective first matches, it is the Three Lions who top Pool D at the moment owing to a better goal difference than the hosts. Liam Ansell scored a brace for England in their first match of the competition while Phil Roper, Nicholas Bandurak and Nicholas Park chipped in with a goal each.

While India are currently ranked number 5 in the world, England aren’t too far behind are at the sixth place with a little less than 38 rating points differentiating the two teams. If this is anything to go by, this should be a cracker of a game.

India should draw inspiration from the fact that their overall head to head record against this opponent is encouraging with them having won 10 of the 21 matches the the two teams have played against each other. England have emerged victorious 7 times while 4 matches have ended in a draw.
 
Team India’s full squad: PR Sreejesh, Krishna Pathak, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh (captain), Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas (Vice Captain), Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh,  Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Jugraj Singh

Team England’s full squad: David Ames (captain), James Albery, Liam Ansell, Nick Bandurak, Will Calnan, David Condon, David Goodfield, Harry Martin, James Mazarelo, Nick Park, Ollie Payne, Phil Roper, Scott Rushmere, Liam Sanford, Tom Sorsby, Zach Wallace, Jack Waller, Sam Ward