Having registered convincing wins in warm-up games against the A team, the Indian men's hockey outfit will be high on confidence as it prepares to take on New Zealand at Nelson on Tuesday.
The last time they played each other was in the Hero Hockey World league Final 2014 here and it was the Black Sticks who came out triumphant.
While New Zealand will have the edge in terms of playing in front of their home crowd, India, with two wins in their kitty, will be upbeat and will aim to continue their form in the upcoming clashes.
With S K Uthappa, Akashdeep Singh, S V Sunil leading the charge it won’t be a surprise if they yet again pull off a victory. Speaking about the game, chief coach and high performance director Roelant Oltmans said, "The last two matches were good learning for us and in a way has got us familiar to the conditions here.”