A Sneak Peek at the Indian Hockey team’s performance at Hockey Men’s World Cups

Bhubaneswar: With less than a week remaining for the upcoming Men’s Hockey World Cup at Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar, preparation of the Indian team for the mega event is in final stage.

The Indian team, under Coach Harendra Singh, is practising hard at the stadium ahead. Here’s a look at the performance of team India at various editions of the World Cup.

The eight time Olympic champion India had participated in all the 13 editions of the world cup which started in 1971.

India's best performance at the world cup was in the third edition played in Malaysia where India emerged as the champions by defeating arch rivals Pakistan by 2-1 goals.

In the first edition played in Spain in 1971, India had defeated Kenya by 2-1 goals to finish at the 3rd spot. India missed the cup by a whisker and finished second after losing the nail biting final to the host team Netherlands by 4-2 in a tiebreaker in the second edition of the cup in 1973.

Indian Hockey team reportedly finished fourth in the 4th edition played in Argentina in 1978 and then finished sixth in the fifth edition which was the first time in which the world cup was hosted in India (Mumbai).

Gradually the performance of team India declined after it finished at the bottom spot in the tournament held in England. India then finished at the bottom half in the tournament in the next few editions as the performance was not up to the standard.

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The 12th edition of world cup was hosted by India in New Delhi in 2010. The Indian steam finished the event at 10th spot. Later, in the last edition held in the Netherlands in 2014, India finished at the 9th spot.

The Indian team is brimming with confidence and it will definitely try to improve their performance as they will be playing in front of their home crowd.