Lausanne (Switzerland), March 2 The Indian men's hockey team has climbed to the fourth position, their highest since the inception of FIH world rankings in 2003, in the recently released table.
India dismantled Olympic champions Argentina, who dropped to fifth place, according to a statement released in the FIH official website.
India showed great form in the first three rounds of the second edition of FIH Hockey Pro League.
Belgium, who in January defeated Australia in Sydney to wrestle the top spot from their opponents, remained in pole position, followed by Australia and the Netherlands.
Germany and England remain in sixth and seventh position, respectively, while New Zealand, who have earned two wins in their last three FIH Hockey Pro League matches, regained the eighth place after briefly dropping beneath Spain to ninth in February.
The Netherlands have retained their position at the top of the women's FIH world rankings, but there has been some changes beneath them, most notably from the only team to have beaten them so far in this season's FIH Hockey Pro League.
Argentina's impressive 2-0 triumph over the reigning World, European and Pro League champions in Buenos Aires helped them rise to the second spot in the rankings. However, the results of their double-header against New Zealand in the weekend, where Las Leonas claimed just two points from a possible six, saw Argentina fall back to third position, with Australia returning to the second place in the rankings.
The new model for calculating the FIH world rankings was introduced on January 1, 2020, moving away from the previous tournament-based ranking system to a dynamic, match-based model where opposing teams exchange points in official, FIH sanctioned games. The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match.
( With inputs from )