Bengaluru: Hockey team captain Manpreet Singh has said that India's performance against top teams like Australia and Argentina in the upcoming Pro League will assess the preparations for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Indian teams are scheduled to participate in the FIH Pro League starting January 18. Apart from India, eight other top teams will participate in this league lasting five months. Manpreet said, "The team aims to be in the top two teams in its pool (Olympics)." Next year in the Pro League we have to play against top teams like Australia and Argentina. Our performance against these two teams will determine how the team is doing before going to the Olympics. After that, we will have to prepare accordingly.

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The Indian men's team has been placed in Pool A along with defending champions Argentina and world number one team Australia. Along with this, India's pool also includes Spain, New Zealand and hosts Japan. Manpreet said, "No group is easy in the Olympics. In terms of rankings, we are the third-best team in our pool after Australia and Argentina, making our pool look a little easier. Pool B has teams from Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, and South Africa. "The Indian captain said," There is not much of an impact in the ranking in the Olympics. No team can be taken lightly. We have to show our best game in all the matches in our pool, which will know which teams will play in the quarter-finals.

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"The Indian women's team has been placed in Pool B where the world champions include Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland and South Africa. Are. Captain Rani Rampal is confident about the team reaching the semi-finals even after the team got a tough draw. "There is no doubt that we have to do our best in every pool match to reach the quarter-finals," he said. This time the team is confident of reaching the semi-finals. "Last year we have played against Ireland and Great Britain and we know what level of play to show against them." We always want to do well against the Netherlands team but have not got a chance to play much against them. We are waiting to play against them.

The 13th phase of the I-League will begin from November 30, 11 teams to participate