Indian Men's Hockey Team Up to No.3 in FIH Rankings Following Asian Champions Trophy Title

The Indian men’s hockey team moved up to third place in the FIH Rankings following their emphatic Asian Champions Trophy victory on Saturday.

India, who have 2771.35 points, moved past England, who have amassed 2763.50 points, to reach the third position in the standings behind only top-ranked Netherlands with 3095.90 points, and Belgium who have 2917.87 points.

The Indians pulled off a magnificent come-from-behind win over Malaysia in the finals of the tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai to claim the title for the fourth time in history.

India opened the scoring early in the opening quarter through Jugraj Singh who converted from a penalty corner, but conceded the advantage as the Malaysian visitors netted three goals to establish a 2-goal cushion heading into halftime.

But, the men in blue turned it around in the third quarter as they netted twice in quick succession to go into the final quarter with all to play for with the game tied at 3-3.

Harmanpreet Singh, the team’s skipper and the tournament’s top scorer converted the penalty stroke to make it 2-3, before Gurjant Singh found the net as he put the finishing touch on a brilliant build-up play to make it 3-3.

India completed the turnaround through Akashdeep Singh, who netted in the final quarter to help India claim a 4-3 lead and held on to the advantage to claim the title.

This was the second time India rose to No 3 in the FIH rankings. India had achieved a similar ranking in 2021 after securing a bronze in the Tokyo Olympics, which was their first medal at the Games in 41 years.

On Saturday, the Harmanpreet Singh-led side defeated Malaysia 4-3 to lift the ACT title. They made an incredible comeback from 1-3 down.

In the last edition of the event in 2021, India had finished third.

The Indian hockey team’s next assignment will be the Asian Games in Hangzhou from September 23.

The ACT runners-up Malaysia remained on ninth in the FIH rankings.

Apart from India and Malaysia, South Korea too find themselves at 11th while Pakistan is placed 16th.

(With Inputs from PTI)