Hockey World Cup | Tricky draw for India

Host India was handed a tricky draw for the upcoming Hockey World Cup on Thursday, placed alongside European sides England, Spain and Wales in Pool D.

While the Indian men, currently fifth in the world, are the highest-ranked side in the group, they will be wary of England after the last meeting between the two sides. England managed to score thrice in seven minutes to draw the game after India led 4-1.

Need to top pool

Only the pool topper will advance directly to the quarterfinals with the next two having to play cross-over games for a last-eight spot. The draw was held at Bhubaneswar.

Current world leader Australia is in Pool A alongside former Olympic champion Argentina while defending World champion Belgium is in Pool B and will be up against twice World champion Germany in the group stages. Pool B, in fact, will be an interesting battle between Europe and Asia with Korea and Japan being the other two sides.

The 16-team event, scheduled from January 13-23, will be the second consecutive edition to be held in Odisha after the 2018 World Cup and will be jointly hosted at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela with the under-construction stadium at the latter being one of the largest hockey stadia in the world with a capacity of 20,000.

The draw: Pool A: Australia, Argentina, France, South Africa; Pool B: Belgium, Germany, Korea, Japan; Pool C: Netherlands, New Zealand, Malaysia, Chile; Pool D: India, England, Spain, Wales.