New Delhi: The Indian men hockey team departed in the early hours of July 31 for the upcoming Europe Tour where they will play against France and Spain. The series is in preparation for the upcoming FIH Hockey World League Final, to be held in India later this year wherein India will be seen clashing twice against France and thrice against Spain during the Tour.

Speaking during the departure, Roelant Oltmans, Director, High Performance and Indian Men Chief Coach stated, “The Tour is important for us as we will get a good opportunity to play against European teams and in a away help us prepare ourselves for the upcoming important tournaments lined up in the next one year and leading to the RIO Olympics. We have been working on our on-field understanding and communication amongst players, which we need to sort out before we enter the important tournaments. During this Tour we aim to will enhance our performance while improvising our skills and attacking attitude.”

Speaking at the IGI Airport, Captain Sardar Singh added “Playing against the European teams will a good experience for our players and the Tour will help us to rectify and work on various loopholes. There are few areas where we need to work bit more, specially the finishing and penalty corner conversion. The Shilaroo Camp was very productive for the team as it helped us strengthen ourselves physically as well as mentally. We want to implement our learning during the European Tour and we expect positive results.”

India will be playing their first match on 3rd August 2015 against France and will be played at 21.30 IST.