India would look to proceed their successful momentum after two commanding victories however they’ll ill-afford to drop their guard once they face arch-rivals Pakistan in a Pool A match of the Males’s Junior Asia Cup right here on Saturday.
India thrashed Chinese language Taipei 18-0 of their opening match, earlier than beating Japan 3-1. However they may have their first actual take a look at of the match within the type of a assured Pakistan who’ve additionally notched up resounding wins over Chinese language Taipei (15-1) and Thailand (9-0).
India captain Uttam Singh mentioned the 2 wins had instilled a number of confidence in his crew however admitted that the match towards Pakistan shall be a “shut contest”.
“Now we have began the match on a robust observe and we’ll look to proceed with the identical mentality towards Pakistan. Our first two wins have given us the boldness we would have liked to undergo the match. Pakistan have a robust crew as nicely and it is going to be an in depth contest,” mentioned Uttam on Friday.
Uttam mentioned India’s defence was able to dealing with the Pakistani assaults.
“Now we have defensive unit however Pakistan even have good attackers amongst their ranks. However we now have confronted comparable challenges over the previous and we’re assured we will prohibit them from scoring targets,” mentioned Uttam.
The 2 groups final performed towards one another within the 2015 Junior Asia Cup remaining, which India gained 6-2.
Since 2011, the arch-rivals have met seven occasions within the Junior Asia Cup, with India successful 5 occasions whereas Pakistan emerged victorious as soon as. One match resulted in a draw.
India head coach CR Kumar mentioned his gamers should stay calm and play to their strengths towards Pakistan.
“Enjoying towards Pakistan is all the time a problem. However we now have educated nicely and if we give attention to what we now have been studying over the previous few months, we will get end result out of this sport. Now we have to maintain our calm and play to our strengths.” India will conclude their pool engagements with a match towards Thailand on Sunday.