India TO Face Korea

India Men’s Hockey team will return to action for the first time since their historic Olympic bronze-medal winning campaign as the Men’s Asian Champions Trophy 2021 gets underway in Dhaka from 14 December. In their opening match, India is up against Korea. The defending Champions will be led by Skipper Manpreet Singh and Vice-Captain Harmanpreet Singh as they aim to win the trophy.

India has won this event three times since its inception in 2011 and has won the previous two editions held in 2016 in Kuantan, Malaysia, and 2018 in Muscat, Oman

Skipper Manpreet emphasized getting off to a good start. “Korea is a good team and is very capable of slowing down our attack. In this same venue during the Asia Cup in 2017, we had drawn (1-1) against them in the league stage. Hence, it’s important we don’t get complacent against them and ensure our basics are right when we play them tomorrow.,” he said. 

Speaking about the importance of the tournament for Team India, Manpreet said, “The tournament is quite an important one for us as it is our first tournament after the Tokyo Olympics. The new cycle has started for us. If we start well, then our confidence levels will go high,” he said. The Skipper added there are some young faces in the team and will have a chance to prove themselves.

India will play their opening match against Korea on 14 December, followed by their match against hosts Bangladesh on 15 December. Their third match will be against arch-rivals Pakistan on 17 December and on 19 December they take on Asian Games Champions Japan. The Semis will be played on 21 December followed by the Final on 22 December.