And so, Craig Fulton’s era as the Indian men’s hockey team head coach gets underway with four high-quality matches against Olympic champions Belgium, Great Britain, world No 1 the Netherlands and 2016 Olympic champions Argentina.
India sit on top of the FIH Pro League standings with 19 points on the back of an unbeaten mini-tournament against World Cup winners Germany and Commonwealth Games champions Australia in Rourkela.
Fulton would be forgiven if he had wished for easier match-ups to get his Indian journey started, but in his first press conference, the South African said that he would use the Pro League and other upcoming tournaments as testing grounds for India’s Asian Games campaign.