Men’s Junior Asia Cup Hockey: Arch-rivals India, Pakistan in same group, to clash on May 27

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Mumbai | Arch-rivals India and Pakistan have been placed in the same pool in the 10-team Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 to be played in Salalah, Oman from May 23 to June 1. Both will compete in Pool-A match on 27th May.

The best young Asian men’s hockey teams will compete for the title in the continent’s premier event for junior men and will eye the top three spots in the upcoming FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The ten participating teams are divided into two pools, with Pool A consisting of Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Pakistan and Thailand. Pool B will feature Bangladesh, Korea, Malaysia and Uzbekistan along with hosts Oman.

In the pool stage, each team will play the other four teams in their pool once.

The top two teams in both pools will qualify for the semi-finals, while the third and fourth placed teams will compete for the 5–8 place classification. The fifth-placed teams in both pools will play-off each other to avoid finishing in tenth place.

The losing semi-finalists will play in the bronze medal match, the two finalists and the bronze medalist will qualify for the Junior Hockey World Cup 2023. Malaysia, as the hosts, has already qualified for the World Cup, so if Malaysia enters the semi-finals, all the other three teams that make it to the last four stage of the Junior Asia Cup will also qualify for the World Cup.

The Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 will be played from 5-16 December 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia has qualified as the host of the competition.

Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain have qualified from Europe as the teams that were classified in the top-5 in EuroHockey Junior Championship 2022. Australia and New Zealand have also qualified through the Oceania Junior World Cup Qualifier 2022. South Africa and Egypt are qualifiers from Africa who finished as the top two teams in the Junior Africa Cup 2023. Argentina, Canada and Chile are the three qualifiers from Pan America. The top three teams from Asia will complete the full set of sixteen teams that will compete for the title at the FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023.

In Salalah, the Indian junior men’s team will begin their campaign against Chinese Taipei on May 24 and take on Japan the next day. After a day’s rest, India will take on Pakistan on May 27 and conclude their campaign in Pool A with a match against Thailand on May 28.

IANS

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