Rajgir, 30 Aug

India will look to put behind a lacklustre outing in the opener and dish out their ‘A’ game when they take on a dangerous-looking Japan in the men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament here on Sunday.

The Indians, ranked seventh in the world, huffed and puffed to a narrow 4-3 win over world No. 23 China in their opening Pool A match on Friday — a performance that was far from impressive.

India is the highest-ranked team in the tournament and clear favourites to win the Asia Cup, which also serves as a direct qualification event for next year’s World Cup to be jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Indians started brightly against China but lost their momentum as the game progressed, and they will have to guard against conceding soft goals, which they did against China.

The backline will have to be on its toes against the fast-paced Japanese, who pumped in seven goals against Kazakhstan in their opener.

Penalty corner defence is another area which looks like a cause for concern for India.

India's all four goals against China came from penalty corners, with skipper Harmanpreet Singh scoring a hat-trick, but he was also guilty of missing a penalty stroke.

With four dragflickers in their armoury in Jugraj Singh, Harmanpreet, Sanjay, and Amit Rohidas, India will also need to better their penalty corner conversion rate.

The Indian midfield, though, played well, creating numerous chances, but the need of the hour is to convert those opportunities into goals.

India's chief coach Craig Fulton would also be worried about his forwards' inability to find the target from the field.

Even though the likes of Mandeep Singh, Sanjay, Dilpreet Singh and Sukhjeet Singh looked agile inside the opposition circle, they failed to register their name in the scoresheet.

"We played well enough to win the game (against China), but we didn't play to our expectations. We missed a few chances and we conceded a few soft goals as well," Fulton admitted.

Even though India is the highest-ranked side in the tournament, they can't afford to take any side lightly in such a high-stakes event.

"Well, I expect a fight from any team. We are the highest-ranked team and favourites here, so every team is going to lift themselves to play us, and we have to manage that challenge," Fulton said.

India captain Harmanpreet too stressed the need to have a compact defence.

"Most of the team here prefers to sit back, play deep and wait for counters. That's a good lesson for us, to make sure that our defensive line is strong,” he said.

World no.18 Japan, on the other hand, looked in full control against Kazakhstan, scoring goals at will to serve a real warning to the Indians.

And come Sunday, the Indians will have to be at their best and avoid making silly mistakes to thwart Japan's threat.

Meanwhile, in the other match of the day, China will be up against Kazakhstan.

Teams:

India: Krishan B Pathak (GK), Suraj Karkera (GK), Sumit, Jarmanpreet Singh, Sanjay, Harmanpreet Singh (C), Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, Rajinder Singh, Raj Kumar Pal, Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Mandeep Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Dilpreet Singh.

Japan: Shota Yamada, Yuto Higuchi, Yamato Kawahara, Seren Tanaka, Naru Kimura, Kazumasa Matsumoto, Manabu Yamashita, Raiki Fujishima(C), Ken Nagayoshi, Yusuke Kawamura, Kosei Kawabe, Takashi Yoshikawa (GK), Kisho Kuroda (GK), Keita Watanabe, Ryosuke Shinohara, Hyota Yamada.

The match starts at 3:00 PM.