With two easy wins, a confident Indian hockey team will face its toughest test yet when it takes on arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup on Sunday.
Favourites to win the title, the Indians have been impressive so far, beating Japan and hosts Bangladesh comprehensively in their opening two Pool A matches.
After beating Japan 5-1 in their opening match, the Manpreet Singh-led side mauled minnows Bangladesh 7-0 on Friday. Pakistan, on the other hand, have had a mixed outing so far. While they thrashed Bangladesh 7-0 in the opener, they were held to a 2-2 draw by Japan in their second match.
India are currently sitting atop Pool A with six points from two wins, while Pakistan are placed second with four points. With two wins, India are comfortably through to the Super 4 stage of the tournament and the Sjoerd Marijne-coached side would be hoping to finish the pool stages with an all-win record.
Marijne’s biggest challenge
Less than a month into his new job replacing the Roelant Oltmans, Sunday’s game can be considered coach Marijne’s biggest challenge of his short tenure. Of late, India have dominated Pakistan in hockey, the latest being the 6-1 thrashing in a 5th-8th place classification match of the Hero Hockey World League Semi-Final in London in June.
“What happened in London is history for us now,” said Manpreet. “We did well there but to repeat similar results we want to focus on our game.”
The loss dented Pakistan’s hopes of booking a berth at the next year’s World Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar and the team would be desperate for revenge. Pakistan skipper Muhammad Irfan said, “What happened in London was different. I am aware we lost two back-to-back matches against India but the present Pakistan team is different with few of the senior players making a comeback. Our management has changed and I am confident we will put up a good show.”
For Pakistan it is a big game, as a loss can dent their Super 4 chances. Japan is expected to win hands down against Bangladesh in the other Pool A match of the day. “It is a must-win game for us otherwise we know it will come down to the match between Japan and Bangladesh and if Japan beats hosts by a big margin then we are in trouble,” said Irfan.
“We watched the video of the match against Japan. There were easy chances that we missed but we don’t want to repeat the same mistake against India. They are a strong team with good strategies but we want to focus on our individual skill,” he added.