Having topped their pool featuring eventual champions Belgium, the hosts made a quarterfinal exit, going down to the Netherlands 1-2 in the World Cup.
Eyeing to rewrite history after a hiatus of 43 years, India lost 1-2 to Netherlands in the fourth and last quarterfinal to crash out of the tournament.
Hockey India on Wednesday named a 34-member core group for the final national camp before the season-ending men's World Cup, to be held in Bhubaneswar.
While the men lost 2-4 to Malaysia on Sunday, the women's team suffered a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Argentina later in the day.
The coach said India will settle for nothing less than defending their title in the Games, but admitted it is easier said than done.
For coach Harinder Singh, who took charge a few months back, a title in Jakarta would enter into record books as India have never won back-to-back gold in the continental showpiece.
Harendra further revealed that they had conducted blood tests of all 48 athletes - who are currently training at SAI centre in Bengaluru ahead of the Champions Trophy - and the results have revealed a food-related deficiency in some of the players.
Under the guidance of Harendra, who led the Indian junior men's hockey team to the WC title in 2016, the women's team finished an impressive fourth at the 2018 CWG.
Hockey India also declared that forward Rani Rampal will continue as the women's team captain.
India had won silver medals in the previous two editions of CWG, ending runners-up to Australia on both occasions.
Not only the poor conversion but defensive lapses too played a huge rule in India's defeat, which means the silver medallists from the last two editions will now fight with England in the bronze medal match on Saturday.
Varun Kumar and Mandeep Singh struck in dying minutes of the game as the Indian men's hockey team pulled off a thrilling 4-3 win over England to top Pool B in the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday.
Drag Flick specialist Harmanpreet Singh (3rd minute and 44th minute) scored twice from penalty corners to steer India to the win against Malaysia.
Malaysia is ranked way below in the FIH charts but Manpreet Singh's side has been known to slip up when least expected, the opening game against Pakistan being a testimony to that.
For India to qualify for the final, they will first have to beat Ireland by a big margin and hope Australia beat Argentina and the final round robin match between Malaysia and England ends in a draw.
India were trailing 0-4 after the third quarter but scored two quick goals through Ramandeep Singh in the fourth quarter to avoid a whitewash.
India will meet South Africa on an opening match, Belgium on December 2. Six days later, they will take on Canada at the 16,000 capacity Kalinga Stadium, according to the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
Sardar, who was part of India's Asia Cup-winning squad last year, has been dropped from last two tournaments - the Hockey World League Final in Bhubaneswar and last month's tour to New Zealand.
Glasgow: India Friday began their Commonwealth Games men's hockey campaign with a facile 3-1 win over lowly Wales in a Pool A tie at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre here.In what was a lazy and
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