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The Indian men’s hockey team have climbed two spots to move from sixth place to fourth in the FIH World Rankings after a brilliant three outright wins and one in the shoot-out in the FIH Pro League.
After an interval of two months, the FIH Hockey Pro League has so far produced some great hockey along with a few upsets, resulting in major movements in the world rankings.
After the conclusion of matches in Rourkela, an updated list was released on Friday. According to the new list, the Netherlands have now moved to the top spot with 2848.28 points while Australia dropped points after losing against India and Germany in Rourkela.
Belgium are in second place with 2845.82 points, Germany (2752.12) are third followed by India at the fourth spot with 2689.07 points.
After Germany dropped points to Australia and India in the mini-tournament at Rourkela, the Netherlands (2848) climbed up one spot to the top of the world rankings. Belgium (2846) also benefitted from Germany’s loss, climbing up one spot to second place.
Germany (2752) have so far managed to get just one win out of their four matches in the Rourkela mini-tournament. Because of this performance, they have slipped down to third in the world rankings.
India on the other hand had an excellent home run, with three outright wins and one win in the shoot-out to climb two spots to fourth place with 2689 points. Australia have won just two games from their first eight matches and have dropped down one spot to fifth place.
India’s charge up the rankings sees England (2536) lose ground as they slide down to sixth in the world rankings. Argentina (2269) and Spain (2251) played in the mini-tournament in Hobart alongside Australia with both teams maintaining their rankings in seventh and eighth place respectively.
Spain’s three wins in the first three matches had seen them briefly climb up to the seventh spot, but a final match loss to Argentina saw the teams switch back. Korea (1942) and New Zealand (1899) round out the top ten, having not played an international match since the end of the World Cup.
In the FIH Women’s World Rankings, the Netherlands (3199) remain at the top of the table, continuing to maintain their huge lead over Argentina (2640) in second place. Australia (2546) have made a great start to their Pro League campaign with 3 wins, 4 draws (including 2 shoot-out wins) and 1 loss in their opening 8 matches and retain the third spot in the world rankings.
Just over 100 points separate teams between the fourth and seventh position, with Germany (2260) climbing up one spot into fourth ahead of England (2217) in fifth, Belgium (2175) in sixth and Spain (2157) in seventh.
India (2086), New Zealand (1879) and China (1777) close out the top-10 positions, with India last featuring in the Nations Cup where they finished as champions, securing a place in the FIH Hockey Pro League for the 2023/24 season.
New Zealand have had a slow start to their pro league campaign winning 1 match at their home mini-tournament, with 2 shoot-out losses and 1 outright loss. While the results allowed China to close in and reduce the points deficit, New Zealand maintained their ninth spot in the world rankings over China.
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