India take on England in their second pool D match, a crucial match in the teams' FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 journey, and you can follow LIVE updates from the crunch match right here on ESPN:
]India started their 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup with a comfortable 3-1 win over Wales as captain Harmanpreet Singh found his range early on in the tournament. His brace, along with Sanjay's opener saw India's penalty corner expertise come to the fore again. They will need it against England, their toughest opponent on paper in these group stages.
England, meanwhile, started with a routine 4-1 win over Pakistan and the two pool D heavyweights meet with the belief that a win here would help them top the table ahead of the second round. This is important as the points from the match between the two qualified teams (most likely England and India from pool D) carry over to that second round where their other opponents will be heavyweights themselves.
After the Wales win, Harmanpreet said: "We played very well. Our aim was to create chances and score goals match after match. It doesn't matter who is the man of the match or who is scoring the goals. We just need to score goals. We played with that mindset."
"It was important to begin with a good win. We won 3-1 and took three points, which is a good result," he said.
"Currently, the team's focus is on the World Cup and we are in good form, well prepared, and confident of a podium a finish," he added. A result against England will go a long way.