Bhubaneswar: Come June 6. The Indian Men’s hockey team will be up for its first major task this season – the FIH Men’s Series finals in Bhubaneswar. This would be coach Graham Reid’s first major task after he took over the reins of the Indian hockey team. With teams like Russia, Uzbekistan, Poland, United States, Japan, South Africa and Mexico in the fray, India will go as favourites in the tournament. But coach Reid is far from taking any match lightly.

“Every tournament in world hockey is challenging these days. Olympic qualification in this tournament brings it extra importance,” said Reid after the team announcement.

India will first play Russia followed by Poland and Uzbekistan. The top-two teams in the tournament will make it to the Olympics qualification scheduled in November later this year.

“The tournament involves world ranking points and finishing top-two, so it is very important for us. It is a good stepping stone for the qualifiers in November,” Reid said.

The team is fresh after a tour in Australia, where it’s performance was mixed. The coach, who is fresh at the helm of affairs after Harendra Singh was shown the doors, believes the tour to Australia has helped in his understanding of the team.

“I think one of the great things that the tour of Australia provided us was focus on what we need to do to reach the high level and the process of doing that was also very important,” the coach summed up.