FIH World Hockey Rankings: India move up two spots to 8th position, Australia replace Germany as world no.1

The Indian senior men’s hockey team moved up two spots to be placed 8th in the recently released FIH World Hockey Rankings.  The Blueshirts had earlier last month moved up a notch to 10th place after languishing at the 11th spot for a fairly long time.

India’s climb in rankings can be attributed to their sixth place in the Hockey World League Final in New Delhi, where they upset the then world number one outfit Germany 5-4 in a play-off tie.

Meanwhile, Australia topped Germany to be the new world number side. Netherlands, who won the Hockey World League Final crown, retained their number three spot, while England and Belgium held their 4th and 5th spots respectively.

It may be worth noting that Belgium had jumped five places to 5th spot when the rankings were last announced in December.

New Zealand, who reached the Hockey World League Final, advanced one place to be at 6th spot.

Korea who jointly held the 6th spot with Spain, fell one spot to 7th position, while Spain dropped two places to 10th spot.

Pakistan also slipped one spot to 9th position.

The Indian women’s team retained their 13th spot. Olympic champions Netherlands continue to hold the number one spot, with Argentina at second position. England are at 3rd spot, while Australia moved up to hold the 4th spot. New Zealand fell one spot to be placed fifth.

Among the Asian nations, China and Korea occupy the seventh and eight positions respectively. Japan and USA are placed ninth and tenth respectively.

FIH Rankings (Men)
1.     Australia

2.     Germany

3.     Netherlands

4.     England

5.     Belgium

6.     New Zealand

7.     Korea

8.     India

9.    Pakistan

10.  Spain

11   Argentina

12 South Africa

13 Malaysia

14 Japan

15 Ireland
 
FIH Rankings (Women)
1 Netherlands

2 Argentina
3 England

4 Australia

5 New Zealand

6 Germany

7 China

8 Korea

9 Japan

10 USA

11 South Africa

12 Belgium

13 India

14 Spain

15 Ireland