Asian Champions Trophy: Indian Defending Champions leave Dhaka for the men’s competition

Bhubaneswar, Dec 10 : Indian Mens Hockey Team left for Dhaka on Friday to defend their title at the Asian Champions Trophy to begin from December 14.

This will be Indias first international outing after their bronze medal-winning performance at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Captain Manpreet Singh expressed the teams excitement ahead of the prestigious continental championship."This is our first outing after the Tokyo Olympics so naturally there is a lot of excitement among the players.

We have had a good training camp in Bhubaneswar and I feel since the weather here is quite similar to that of Dhaka, we wont take long to acclimatize," he said."With only eight players from the Tokyo Olympic squad making the team for the Asian Champions Trophy and the rest of stalwarts including PR Sreejesh being rested for this tournament, this will be a great opportunity for youngsters in the team to perform," said the captain.

The rest of the Tokyo Olympic team has been rested.This is an excellent opportunity for players that had been sitting on the sidelines, to have a chance at playing in major international tournaments.

The star midfielder stated that it would be an excellent platform to show their talents and personality.

Talking about the competition, Manpreet said, "It will be a good tournament not just in terms of competition but also to understand other teams capabilities.

We assess the progress of other Asian countries ahead of the all-important Asian Games and Asia Cup next year."India will play their opening match against Korea on December 14, followed by a match against hosts Bangladesh on December 15.Their third match will be against arch-rivals Pakistan on December 17 and on December 18 India will take on Malaysia followed by their match against Japan on December 19.The semi-finals will be played on December 21 followed by the final on December 22.In the previous edition of this event held in Muscat, Oman, India had jointly lifted the title along with Pakistan as the Final was called off due to incessant rains.inj #Asian #Trophy #Indian #Dhaka.