India to play Great Britain on the second day at the Azlan Shah Cup – Hockey Preview
India and Great Britain are all set to face each other in the 20th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup match to take place on May 6 at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia.
The first day of the tournament featured three matches among six nations, except for Australia and the teams to end up as winners were Pakistan, South Korea and Great Britain.
The British team has appeared as participants in the Azlan Shah after a gap of almost ten years. They last played in the 2001 edition of the Cup ending up sixth, which was quite a disappointing performance.
However, this time the team looks in form as they won their opening match against the Malaysian team 3-1.
Indian Team
The Indian team had an unfortunate start to the tournament by facing an unexpected defeat from South Korea in the closing minutes of the match 2-3. The Indian team has few of their hockey gems missing this year either due to injuries or getting ruled out
of the selection list. The former captain Rajpal Singh and Tushar Khandekar are yet to recover from their injuries whereas two key defenders Sardara Singh and Sandeep Singh were not selected due to issues with Hockey India (HI). Even though this shortage was
met by new youngsters introduced to play the event, the team still seems to be lacking the spark it used to have. On considering the importance of winning this year’s Azlan Cup, the team seems quite under-prepared for completing their hat-trick win this year.
Great Britain Team
Great Britain has started fresh with a team created out of Scottish and English mix, hoping to return with some improved results this year. However, they nailed their impression on defeating the Malaysians by 3-1 on the inaugural day. It seems that the team
will end up well as a clearer picture could be seen after today’s face-off against the Indians.
Players to watch
Among the Indian side, the team’s star skipper and Captain Arjun Halappa will be the individual getting all the attention from the hockey fans.
On the other hand, Britain’s Richard Mantell played very well in the last match and will be the centre of attention in today’s match as well. His performance is critical if Britain is to compete in today’s match.
Head-to-head Statistics
The last encounter between the English and Indian team took place last year in the 2010 Commonwealth Games semi-finals when both ended up in a 3-3 draw. This lock was broken with the penalty shoot-outs in which India won 5-4.
Both the teams are expected to give a good show in the Azlan Shah encounter.
Prediction
On one side, the Indian team is in desperate need of a win on the Malaysian ground whereas the British team have boosted their confidence with yesterdays win. The match will be a head-to-head fight, as India is expected to open up their account by defeating
England 4-2.
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