DESCRIPTION:
* Asian Champions Trophy is a biennial event of Asian Hockey Federation.
* India and Pakistan are most successful teams with two titles each.
* India won the last edition, defeating Pakistan in the final 4-2 in penalty shoot out.
* The fifth edition of the biennial tournament, featuring six teams, will take place at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat.
* The six teams are: Oman, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea and Japan.
* Hero MotoCorp are the title sponsors of the tournament.
* India will be starting their title defence against hosts Oman on October 18.
* They will play their remaining four league matches against Pakistan October 20, Japan on October 21, Malaysia on October 23 and Korea on October 24.
* Each team will play a total of five Round-Robin matches, the conclusion of which will see four teams qualify for the Semi-finals that will take place on October 27, 2018.
* The remaining two teams will play each other in a qualification match for 5th spot.
* India will look to win their third Men’s Asian Champions Trophy in their fifth attempt after having defeated Pakistan in 2011 and 2016 editions of the tournament.
* Chief Coach Harendra Singh said, Asian Champions Trophy will serve as good preparation for our team to get into the rhythm before the Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018.
SCHEDULE:
October 18: Japan vs Malaysia (18.55 hrs); India vs Oman (21.10 hrs)
October 19: Pakistan vs South Korea (18.55 hrs); Oman vs Malaysia (21.10 hrs)
October 20: Japan vs South Korea (18.55 hrs); India vs Pakistan (21.10 hrs)
October 21: India vs Japan (21.10 hrs)
October 22: Malaysia vs South Korea (18.55 hrs); Oman vs Pakistan (21.10 hrs)
October 23: Oman vs South Korea (18.55 hrs); India vs Malaysia (21.10 hrs)
October 24: Japan vs Pakistan (18.55 hrs); India vs South Korea (21.10 hrs)
October 25: Malaysia vs Pakistan (18.55 hrs); Oman vs Japan (21.10 hrs)
October 27: Classification matches (16.40 hrs onwards)
October 28: FINAL (21.10 hrs)