The Indian men's hockey team will need to control the tempo of the game better and switch on from the word go so as to begin the game on a positive note in the Asian Champions Trophy, starting on Thursday, said vice-captain Hardik Singh on Tuesday.
Hardik said that it will be a tough event for the Indian team as the event will also be preparation for the upcoming Asian Games.
"I hold the belief that each team participating in the competition presents a formidable challenge, being of good quality. Consequently, our approach shall be to prepare diligently for every encounter, offering nothing less than our utmost efforts," Hardik was quoted as saying in a release by Hockey India on Tuesday.
Hardik applauded the team’s show at the recent tour to Spain and said, “We performed well in Spain, especially in the last couple of games which included the 2-1 win against the Netherlands.”
Notably, India is the most successful team in the history of the tournament alongside Pakistan as both teams have won the Asian Champions Trophy thrice each. Hence, the hosts will now aim to clinch the trophy for the record fourth time and script a new chapter in Indian hockey history.
The Indian team will lock horns with Japan, Korea, Pakistan, China, and Malaysia during the course of the tournament, which is scheduled to be held from 3- 12 August at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.
India will open their campaign against China on Thursday, i.e., 3 August.
As per the tournament format, all six teams will each play five matches in the round-robin stage before the top four teams move into the semifinals.
Speaking on India’s preparations for the tournament and the team’s recent performance, chief coach Craig Fulton said, “I think we did really well in our recently concluded four-nation tournament in Spain. We faced some really good opponents in the past 10 days and performed well against them. We have started playing the way we like to play. Also, we made some tactical changes in our game in our recent games and now we will aim to implement those in the Asian Champions Trophy.”
“We will use this tournament as a platform to prepare for the upcoming Asian Games,” he added.
Notably, out of the six participating teams, India, Malaysia, Japan and Korea have already reached the host city Chennai, while Pakistan and China are scheduled to arrive here later on Tuesday night.
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