Deepak Thakur will hold the key upfront

Kuala Lumpur: India have a daunting task at hand when they open their campaign in the Azlan Shah hockey meet here Thursday with Olympic champions Australia starting as firm favourites to defend their title at the National Hockey Stadium at Bukit Jalil here.

India, who finished last in the previous edition, will take on South Africa in their first outing, knowing fully well that their rivals are looking for revenge for their last two defeats.

It was here in the first edition of the champions challenge final that they were beaten in 2001 and more recently at Athens, where India bounced back after trailing by two first half goals and pumped in four in the second session to register a creditable win.

For thrice winners India, the team can best be described as a mixed bag, churned out in the absence of the juniors who travel to Bilbao, Spain, for an under-21 four-nation tournament, en route to Rotterdam for the defence of their World Cup title next month.

The eleven-day prestigious event here will be played on a round-robin format amongst Australia, Pakistan, India, South Korea, New Zealand, South Africa and hosts Malaysia. The final will be held on June 5.

Though India have quite a few newcomers who stood out in the highly successful inaugural Premier Hockey League at Hyderabad early this year, the dampener was the injuries to regular midfielders Viren Rasquinha and Vikram Pillay, besides veteran striker Samir Dad who was hoping for a comeback.

Even though Dilip Tirkey was back after a long injury layoff, the captain would be hoping that the other deep defenders ? the youthful Harpal Singh and Muthuselvan ? would be as sturdy, while the ‘big boy’ Len Aiyappa would execute the penalty corner drag-flicks.

The midfield appears to be vulnerable in the absence of Rasquinha and Pillay.

Armyman Ignace Tirkey and Bimal Lakra must play out of their skin with support from rookies Avtar Singh and Jaswinder.

The coaches Rajinder Singh (jr) and Narinder Pal Singh may even play Arjun Halappa in the right midfield slot to blunt rival onslaughts.

Deepak Thakur will hold the key to the India front line, and if his forays have the precision and calibration with Indian Oil colleague Prabhjot Singh and Airlines forward Sandeep Michael, the trio could well be the toast of the large Indian support base here.

Striker Suresh Kumar of the Services may hog the limelight with his stickwork skills and ‘on the run’ marksmanship which were on display during the camps at Delhi and Hyderabad.

The Australians, coached by Barry Dancer, congregated for the first time at Perth since their title win at the Olympics last August for an intensive training camp where the majority of the Athens squad were joined by Michael Boyce, Aaron Hopkins, Stephen Lambert and Craig Victory.

The Victorian will have Michael McCann, Grant Schubert and Craig Victory for company upfront, while the Queensland pair Jamie Dwyer and Liam De Young are expected to provide the penalty corner fireworks.

The defending champions who have won this title thrice have also included uncapped Luke Doerner, David Guest and Eli Matheson in the squad and will face hosts Malaysia in their opener.

Pakistan, champions in 1999, 2000 and 2003 have brought along twelve juniors with the obvious motive to blood them in top flight competition before the Rotterdam Junior World Cup in June-July.

Led by centre-half Mohammed Saqlain, the side will sorely miss the world’s highest scorer Sohail Abbas, who announced retirement from international hockey soon after the Lahore Champions Trophy.

THE SCHEDULE:

May 26: Pakistan vs New Zealand, India vs South Africa, Malaysia vs Australia May 27: New Zealand vs India, Australia vs Korea, South Africa vs Malaysia May 28: Korea vs Pakistan May 29: Malaysia vs India, Pakistan vs South Africa, New Zealand vs Australia May 30: Malaysia vs Korea, New Zealand vs South Africa May 31: Pakistan vs Australia, India vs Korea

June 1: Australia vs South Africa, New Zealand vs Malaysia, India vs Pakistan June 2: Korea vs New Zealand June 3: South Africa vs Korea, Australia vs India, Malaysia vs Pakistan June 5: Matches for the 5th place, 3rd place and FINAL.

(PTI)