After registering comfortable wins in their respective opening matches, arch-rivals India and Pakistan face-off in a crunch round-robin match of Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament at Muscat, Oman on Saturday.
India thrashed hosts Oman 11-0 on the opening day of the tournament, while Pakistan beat South Korea 3-1 the following day. Saturday's meeting will be their second meeting in fifty days.
India beat Pakistan in the 2018 Asian Games bronze medal match 2-1, thanks to goals from Akashdeep Singh and Harmanpreet Singh, at Jakarta on September 1.
Early in June, India defeated Pakistan 4-0 in the first match of the 2018 Champions Trophy at Breda, Netherlands.
Despite carrying a heavy historical baggage, India have dominated the rivalry in recent past, winning eight of nine previous meetings by some big margins. The only blot was a 2-2 draw at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April.
Considering the trend, India should start as the favourites.
On the eve of the match coach, Harendra Singh said that India's tournament starts on Saturday and said his boys are looking forward to the keenly awaited match.
his team has shrugged off the disappointment of the Jakarta Games and is looking forward to the keenly awaited contest against arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy here on Saturday.
"The competitive part of the tournament starts Saturday with the match against Pakistan.
"After the semi-final loss in the Asian Games, the mood was not good for a few days. The disappointment of not winning the Asian Games gold is still playing on the minds of the players somewhat, but we cannot keep thinking of the past.
"We are now focused on this tournament and the side is shaping well. Nine of our players scored goals against Oman in the first outing here. A victory here in the Asian Champions Trophy will be a good path for the World Cup just over a month away. This tournament is close of the World Cup, we need competitive matches and we are getting them," he said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Skipper Rizwan Senior insisted that his team is not thinking about the India game yet.
"Our first priority is to make a winning start against Korea on Friday. They have made about eight changes in their team and since we don't know too much about what these new players bring to the team, we have to be quite cautious against them," he said.
Both India and Pakistan are two-time champions, having played in all four finals so far. India won it in 2011 and 2016, while Pakistan were victorious in 2012 and 2013.
Squads:
India: SINGH Harmanpreet (1), SINGH Dilpreet (2), SINGH Jarmanpreet (4), KHADANGBAM Kothajit (5), KUMAR Surender (6), SINGH Manpreet (7/C), SINGH Gurjant (9), SINGH Mandeep (11), UPADHYAY Lalit (14), SINGH Hardik (15), PARATTU Sreejesh (16/GK), SUMIT (17), SHANGLAKPAM Nilakanta (18), PATHAK Krishan (19/GK), KUMAR Varun (22), SINGH Gurinder (23), SINGH Akashdeep (27), SINGH Akashdeep (29)
Pakistan: BUTT Imran (1/GK), ALI Mubashar (3), RIZWAN Muhammad (4), ARSHAD Toseeq (5), ABBAS Tasawar (6), IRFAN JR. Muhammad (7), IRFAN Muhammad (8), SHAN Ali (10), RIZWAN Muhammad (11/C), ABBAS Mazhar (12/GK), BILAL Aleem (13), BHUTTA Umar (14), BUTT Ammad (16), ZUBAIR Muhammad (17), ATIQ Muhammad (18), QADIR Muhammad Faisal (20), AHMAD Ajaz (23), MAHMOOD Abu (27)
(With Agency inputs)
