Pak hockey team arrive in India for Asian Champions Trophy

SEE: Pakistan hockey players arrive in India for the Asian Champions Trophy via the Attari-Wagah border, on Tuesday. VIDEO: ANI/Twitter 

The Pakistan Hockey team arrived in India via the Attari-Wagah border for the Asian Champions Trophy to be held in Chennai.

The tournament will be held from August 3 till August 12.

Muhammad Saqlain coach of the Pakistan Hockey team said, "The team is travelling to Chennai to play in the Asian Champions Trophy and teams from all over Asia will feature in the tournament. Through sports, we hope to build our relationship stronger. I believe that through the sports and film industry, our bounds will grow stronger with India. People from both countries have big hearts and treat their guests well," he said.

Captain of the Pakistan Hockey team Muhammad Umar Bhutta said, "Sport is a good thing, it helps to build your relationship with others. There should be a lot of sports," he said.

Japan, Korea, Pakistan, China and Malaysia are the other five teams in the tournament. All the six teams will each play five matches in the round-robin stage before the top four move into the semifinals.

India will open their campaign against China on Thursday.

India and Pakistan are the most successful teams in the tournament with three titles each.

Pakistan won the first title in 2012, the second in 2013 and shared the trophy with India in 2018, while India won the inaugural tournament in 2011, then in 2016 and in 2018, joint winners with Pakistan.

Vice-captain Hardik Singh said his team will need to remain "switched on" throughout every match.

"We need to control the tempo of the game and need to be switched on from the word go so that we can begin a game on a positive note," said Hardik.

"Each team participating in the competition presents a formidable challenge, being of good quality. Consequently, our approach shall be to prepare diligently for every encounter, offering nothing less than our utmost efforts," he added.

"We performed well in Spain, especially in the last couple of games which included the 2-1 win against the Netherlands."