The coach of Pakistan’s national hockey team, Farhat Khan termed India as the “toughest team on paper” for the Asia Cup to be held in Dhaka in October, the PTI reported on Thursday.
The two sub-continental rivals are expected to renew their rivalry in the tournament after both were placed in Pool A. Alongside India and Pakistan, Japan and hosts Bangladesh have also been grouped together.
The team will play their opening match of the tournament against the hosts on October 11 in Dhaka. Pakistan’s next match will be against Japan on October 13, followed by the fixture against India on October 15.
“There is tough competition among the participating Asian teams with India being the strongest on paper with a world ranking of six,” Khan said while assessing the strength of the competing squads. “But there are always teams, who can spring a surprise as Malaysia showed by finishing fourth at the Hockey World League Semi-Final in London. Therefore, it is important for us to keep focus on our game as we want to win the tournament,” he added.
Khan also said that his side need to improve all areas of their game. “We will need to make improvements in all areas of our game if we want to achieve our goal this time,” he pointed out. “We have faced a tough time in recent years as we failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, and then the 2016 Olympic Games, therefore we want to deliver our best starting from Asia Cup 2017.”
The Pakistani hockey team has had a series of bad results in the past few years, including a seventh-place finish at the 2017 Hockey World League Semi-Final in June. Despite their slump in the last few years, Pakistan enter the Asia Cup as one of the tournament favourites. They are the second-most crowned champions in its history with three wins behind South Korea, who have won the tournament four times.