Hockey Asia Cup: India needs to produce ‘A' game to counter Japan threat

RAJGIR: India will look to put behind a lacklustre outing in the opener and dish out their ‘A' game when they take on a dangerous-looking Japan in the men's Asia Cup hockey tournament on Sunday.

The Indians, ranked seventh in the world, huffed and puffed to a narrow 4-3 win over world No 23 China in their opening Pool A match on Friday — a performance that was far from impressive.

India are the highest-ranked team in the tournament and clear favourites to win the Asia Cup, which also serves as a direct qualification event for next year's World Cup to be jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Indians started brightly against China but lost their momentum as the game progressed and they will have to guard against conceding soft goals, which they did against China.

The backline will have to be on its toes against the fast-paced Japanese, who pumped in seven goals against Kazakhstan in their opener.

Penalty corner defence is another area which looks a cause of concern for India.

India's all four goals against China came from penalty corners with skipper Harmanpreet Singh scoring a hat-trick but he was also guilty of missing a penalty stroke.

With four dragflickers in their armoury in Jugraj Singh, Harmanpreet, Sanjay and Amit Rohidas, India will also need to better their penalty corner conversion rate.

The Indian midfield, though, played well creating numerous chances but the need of the hour is to convert those opportunities into goals.

India's chief coach Craig Fulton would also be worried about his forwards inability to find the target from the field.

"We played well enough to win the game (against China) but we didn't play to our expectations. We missed a few chances and we conceded a few soft goals as well," Fulton admitted.

India captain Harmanpreet too stressed on the need to have a compact defence.

"Most of the team here prefer to sit back, play deep and wait for counters. That's a good lesson for us, to make sure that our defensive line is strong,” he said.

Meanwhile in the other match of the day, China will be up against Kazakhstan.

Deepika to miss women’s Asia Cup

Hockey India on Saturday announced that drag-flicker Deepika has not travelled with the women’s hockey national team to China for their Asia Cup campaign due to a hamstring injury sustained during a training session.

Deepika, who will be in rehab for the next few weeks, has been replaced by Sakshi in the Indian squad for the tournament which will be held from September 5 to 14 in Hangzhou.

The winner will qualify for next year's World Cup to be held in Belgium and Netherlands.