Greenshirts looking to break India plague in Azlan Shah Cup: Hockey News
The Greenshirts are looking to break the winning drought against the Indian hockey team in the upcoming fixture scheduled to be played on May 11, in the ongoing Azlan Shah Cup. They will attempt to exploit the absence of seasoned drag flickers, Sardara Singh
and Sandeep Singh.
However, the two teams have different track record until now in the Azlan Shah Cup. Pakistan has won two matches against New Zealand and South Korea, whereas they lost to Great Britain and Australia. On the other hand, India won two games besides one defeat
and a draw.
Pakistan is looking to make a return in the invitational in the forthcoming fixture against India. Muhammad Imran, the new captain of the Pakistan team is committed to avert fifth consecutive defeat against India in the mega event.
Speaking to the media, he stated that they were quite determined to defeat India. He said. “We are fully confident of breaking the jinx against India this time. The 5-1 loss against Australia will not hamper our performance. Tomorrow is the rest day and
we will assess our mistakes and will do the best against them.”
Apart from that the Greenshirts clinched the title of the Asian Games. Pakistan lost all the games played against India respectively, in the World Cup, Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the Azlan Shah Cup.
Imran, who was also part of the national squad that contested the Asiad, was of the opinion that they would try to take the advantage of the absence of short-corner master, Sandeep Singh. He said that Sandeep was the player who opened the scoring through
penalty corners in almost all the matches. He, however, said that the Pakistani drag-flickers failed to do so in the crucial contests. In the current position, their short-corner section is far better than India, as Sandeep is not part of the squad.
Imran said that there would be lot of pressure on both sides in the contest as like the every game between the two-rival countries. He, however, rejected the impression of upper hand by the Indian team owing to previous victories.
To a query regarding specific strategy against the arch-rival, the skipper was of the view that they would reveal it on Wednesday. He admitted that India played impressively thus far in the invitational particularly Rupinder Pal Singh. Therefore they would
form a different strategy against them, he maintained.
The skipper made it clear that this event is beginning of the training for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics. Therefore they were testing new talent in the squad. However, they will attempt to overcome India in order to boost the confidence level of their
players.
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