India eye a good show in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup

Bengaluru, February 28: The Indian men's hockey team is high on confidence as they left for Malaysia for the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, which will be held from March 3 to 10.

The 18-member team, which is led by experienced midfielder Sardar Singh, will begin their campaign on March 3 against 2016 Olympic gold medalist and world No.2 Argentina.

Here are some snapshots of the Indian Men's Hockey Team's departure for Malaysia on 27th February to play the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup beginning on 3rd March. Catch all the action LIVE on Star Sports 2, Star Sports HD 2 and Hotstar.#IndiaKaGame pic.twitter.com/PKUtqkXqsC

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) February 27, 2018

Speaking about the team's preparations for the annual tournament, which also has world No.1 Australia, England, Ireland apart from the hosts in the fray, Sardar sounded upbeat.

"It'll be a good competition and Sultan Azlan Shah Cup has for long been a tournament that sets the pace for the rest of the calendar year and doing well here will be important for us. We have had a good camp in SAI, Bengaluru, where the focus was on taking our attack and defensive skills to the next level".

In the previous edition, India had finished third after beating New Zealand 4-0 while England won the title after beating Australia 4-3 in the final. In the pool stages, India had a mixed outing which included a 2-2 draw against England in their first match, followed by 3-0 win against New Zealand in their second match, but lost to Australia 1-3 before a narrow 4-3 win against Japan. But it was the 0-1 loss against hosts Malaysia that had dented their prospects.

"It'll be extremely important to start the tournament well. A good match against Argentina will give the team the confidence for the rest of the matches to follow. Every match in the pool stage will be important to ensure a place in the final. We've beaten teams like Australia and England in the past and have done well against Argentina too, we just need to ensure we play in a structured manner and execute the team's plans perfectly," Sardar said.

Since the tournament's inception in 1983, the Indian team has lifted the trophy five times (1985, 1991, 1995, 2009, while they shared it with South Korea in 2010).
In 2016, when Sardar last captained the Indian team, they finished as runners-up after losing 0-4 to Australia in the final.

"It's always a proud moment to lead the Indian team. But my role will be no different from what I've have been doing in the camp where we seniors have taken the responsibility to guide the junior players in the squad. At tournament too, it'll be important to help them shake off the initial nervousness and I'm confident with senior players like Ramandeep Singh, SK Uthappa, Surender Kumar and Talwinder Singh and very talented junior players, we'll come up with a good show," the 31-year-old added.

(Source: Hockey India)

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