Captain Harmanpreet Singh feels that Hero Asian Champions Trophy will be good platform to test the preparedness of the Indian hockey team for the all important Asian Games.
[Photo: SNS]
Captain Harmanpreet Singh feels that Hero Asian Champions Trophy will be good platform to test the preparedness of the Indian hockey team for the all important Asian Games.
The seventh edition of the Asian Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held in Chennai from 3rd August to 12th August serving as a precursor to the Hangzhou Asian Games in September where teams will vie to win Gold and qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“This will be an ideal tournament for us to see where we stand against the same teams with whom we will be competing in the Asian Games. It will be a litmus test for the team ahead of the Asian Games.” he said adding “It will also give us a good understanding of our opponents and we can further prepare well for the Asian Games where we aim to win the Gold Medal and directly qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics,” .
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With Korea and Malaysia showcasing good form in the World Cup ,Harmanpreet opined that the competition will be quite closely-fought. “Korea has shown great progress over the last couple of years. They won the Asia Cup in Jakarta last year and also did very well in the World Cup. Malaysia too is a strong contender for the title and they continue to have one of the best PC attacks. It will undoubtedly be a hard-fought tournament,”
India won the Asian Champions Trophy Title in the inaugural edition held in 2011 and beat Pakistan in the Final to win the Title in 2016. In the following edition in 2018, India were joint winners with Pakistan after rain affected the proceedings of the Final held in Muscat. In the previous edition in 2021 held in Dhaka, the Indian Team finished the campaign with a Bronze Medal.
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