Defending Champion India to kick off the Asia Cup Campaign against Arch Rival Pakistan
Writer : Arindam
This time the event will be held at the Bung Karno Sports Arena in Jakarta from May 23 rd to June 1 st. With eight nations participating in this quadrennial event, the teams are divided into 2 pool groups.
All teams will play the other sides in the group once, with the top two sides advancing to the next round. The third and fourth placed teams will play for the fifth to eighth positions.
The second round will see the top four teams from the group stage play each other once. The top two from this stage will play the final while the bottom two will compete for the third and fourth place.
The top three teams of the tournament will qualify for the World Cup in 2023 hosted by India.
Source ToI
Rupinder not part of the Squad
India, the depending champions, coming fresh from the recent Olympic success and the FIH Hockey pro League, is fielding their second string team with lot of new faces. The team was initially planned to be lead by the ‘back from retirement’ Rupinder had a set back with him getting a last minute injury.
The Team is definitely excited. The Asia cup is a prestigious tournament and we will have quite a few players who will be experiencing this tournament for the first time so naturally the mood is quite upbeat in the team – Birendra [Hockey India Release]
Birendra Lakra, who also came out of retirement will now be leading the Indian team. SV Sunil will be the Vice-captain of the team. SV Sunil will be making his fourth Asia Cup appearance, a feat only achieved by Dilip Tirkey & Sardar Singh. The squad include Yashdeep Siwach, Abhisek Lakra, Manjeet, Vishnukant Singh and Uttam Singh, who made their mark at the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2021. The team will be coached by India’s formar Captain Sardara Singh.
India has so far played 56 matches in the Asia Cup winning 43 of them. We have scored 274 goals in the Asia Cup
Source: Asia Hockey Twitter
Along with India, team like Pakistan, Japan , Korea & Malaysia will be eyeing the trophy that was last played in 2017.
Others teams – Bangladesh, Oman and Indonesia (Host) will try to gain the needed experience.
India meet Pakistan on the opening day with both the team being champion for 3 times. Only Korea has won it more than India and Pakistan – 4 times.
India Squad
Goalkeepers: Pankaj Kumar Rajak, Suraj Karkera
Defenders: Nilam Sanjeep, Yashdeep Siwach, Abhisek Lakra, Birendra Lakra (C), Manjeet, Dipsan Tirkey
Midfielders: Vishnukant Singh, Raj Kumar Pal, Mareeswaren Sakthivel, Sheshe Gowda BM, Simranjeet Singh
Forwards: Pawan Rajbhar, Abharan Sudev, SV Sunil (VC), Uttam Singh, S Karthi
India Matches
- 23rd May India vs Pakistan
- 24th May Japan vs India
- 25th May Indonesia vs India
28th, 29th & 31st will have Super4 pools followed by Bronze Medal & Final on 1 June 2022
Telecast Details
Television | Star Sports First, Star Sports Select 2 SD and HD.
Stream | Hotstart & Jio
