Ipoh (Malaysia), March 22: Putting behind the disappointments of closing 12 months, the Indian guys’ hockey crew will renew its quest for glory while it takes on Asian Games gold medallists Japan in their beginning come across of the 28th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup right here on Saturday (March 23). Despite being without the steerage of a train and a chain of accidents plaguing its gamers, latest being Gurjant Singh, who lower back domestic after fracturing his nostril at some point of practice healthy, the Indian group is upbeat and assured of a display appropriate.
“Japan, Korea and hosts Malaysia can be the teams to look at out for. They are touring with full squads, and they will pose a stiff undertaking for us,” skipper Manpreet Singh said at the eve of their commencing in shape. “The youngsters will want to step up their sport, and I believe having fresh faces may be a bonus because the possibility of the warring parties understanding tons about the brand newcomers is less.” The Indian team reached right here on Monday, and we’re going approximately their recurring to get used to the humid conditions. On Thursday, the group performed a practice healthy against hosts Malaysia and are prepared for a perfect start to the event.
India’s previous trip at Sultan Azlan Shah ended with the team finishing 5th, however, noticed some exact performances through a younger unit blended with some senior players. The group had lost narrowly (2-3) to Olympic Champions Argentina in their first healthy, drew with England 1-1, lost to eventual champions Australia 2-four and beat Malaysia 5-1. Though they misplaced 2-three to Ireland inside the round robin stage, they beat them 4-1 within the putting match.
“Youngsters have usually used the platform to give you memorable performances right here, and though the forwarding barring Mandeep Singh has approximately 12 caps between every other, we are hopeful they may absorb the stress early on and supply,” Manpreet stated. “It’s crucial for us seniors lower back all of the youngsters in the crew and manual them through the event to get the great out of them,” he introduced. India has crowned champions in 1985, 1991, 1995, 2009 and shared the honors with South Korea in 2010. In maximum recent years, the Indian team settled for silver in 2016 after dropping to Australia and bronze in 2017. Also Read:
