Ramandeep Singh, Manpreet SIngh, India hockey
Ramandeep and Manpreet.Ian MacNicol/Getty images

India have not had a good season in 2017, and will be eager to get things straight as they will be involved in a tour of Europe, with the first match against Belgium on Wednesday. Besides, Belgium , India will also face Netherlands and Austria.

Considering India's performance not having been upto the mark in major competitions, this Europe tour is going to be important for the team, especially coach Roelant Oltmans, whose future also lies uncertain.

However, India have decided to bring six new faces for this Europe tour, so the 18-member team is a mix of youth and experience. These youngsters will be looking to impress so that they get a chance to feature in major competitions, which lie ahead including the Asia Cup and the World League Final

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Irrespective of the team that has been sent, they will look for a positive result in Europe. It is not going to be an easy task to beat teams like Belgium and Netherlands in their home turf, but beating Austria should not be too much of a problem.

Both Netherlands and Belgium are ranked above India in the world rankings. India will play Belgium and Netherlands twice and conclude the tour with a match against Austria on 16th August.

This tour also gives Oltamans a chance to look at beating superior teams, which the current team has not been doing on a regular basis. One hopes that India, who will be led by Manpreet Singh in Europe, have a proper plan in place to fire in all cylinders across Europe.

18-member India squad: Goalkeepers: Akash Chikte, Suraj Karkera.

Defenders: Dipsan Tirkey, Kothajit Singh, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Varun Kumar.

Midfielders: SK Uthappa, Harjeet Singh, Manpreet Singh (C), Chinglensana Singh, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma.

Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh, Armaan Qureshi.

Complete schedule

India vs Belgium (2 matches)

Date: 9,10 August

Time: 10:30 pm IST

India vs Netherlands ( 2 matches)

Date: 13 August at 6:30 pm IST, 14 August at 11:30 pm IST

India vs Austria (one match)

Date: 16 August

Time: 9:30 pm IST

You can follow all the live scores on India Hockey official Twitter handle