K ARUMUGAM

India will go all out in the home Asia Cup starting today at Rajgir. It should indeed, as its image is not exactly at its best shape nowadays due to its unexpected run of the mill show in the European Leg of the FIH Proleague this year,  where it lost seven  matches continuously. Nothing short of a commanding Hangzhou Asian Games like show would help India regain its premier status in the continent. At Hangzhou India won all the matches with handsome margin.

India had won four matches against China and drawn one (2-2) out of five encounters they had in the annals of Asia Cup, but the 2-2 draw having come in its 3-team pool has done an eternal damage at the Kuantan Asia Cup. It was only time India did not reach the semifinals of the Asia Cup, and for the first time China achieved the same status. The Kuantan Asia Cup (2009) lesson need to be remembered today, so to make a grand opening for India.

Only a commanding performance as it had in the last Asian Games at Hangzhou – where it won all the matches handsomely including a ten-goal margin win over arch rivals Pakistan –  before wining only its fourth Asian Games title, will help Indian hockey to match its top seeded status in the Rajgir Asia Cup.

India  takes  China today in the fourth and last match of the opening day.

By any stretch of imagination, it won’t be a push over match. With Michel van der Heuvel as the new coach, this team will go all out to prove they are not a push over team, but is here to punch.

Chinese women team has dislodged both Japan and India from the top rung, and looks invincible in the forthcoming Asia Cup (Sep.2025).

Even otherwise, Chinese have always been a tough team in the realm of Asia Cup.

The stats below may belong to India, but the hidden message is that India never had a one-sided match against them. India won five out of six matches it played in the realm of Asia Cup, the remaining solitary match being 2-2 draw in 2009. It pushed India to third in the 3-team pool and Harendra-Dhanraj’s team made a dubious record, not reaching the Asia Cup medals round for the first time.

This draw spoilt India from reaching the semi-finals.

Michel van der Heuvel is their new coach. Whether he can replicate what the Alyson Annan-Ric Charlesworth did with the women’s is to be seen. But the fact of the matter is a danger lurks India. It has to make solid opening today, perhaps as it did in the 1982 (7-0).