FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2023: Japan 0-8 India Highlights

Hello and welcome to the live blog for Japan vs India, FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2023, position classification match at the Birsa Munda Hockey International Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

India made an early exit losing to New Zealand in the crossovers at the FIH men’s Hockey World Cup 2023. The host were one of the favourites to make it to the podium in this edition thereby losing a golden opportunity of winning the World Cup at home (for two successive editions).

Although India cannot progress further, there are a few classification matches lined up, and the first among those will be against Japan. The hosts can now finish in the ninth spot provided win both their classification matches.

The Stakes

India

India has nothing to lose from here and will go all guns blazing against Japan which has been progressing well in Asia. Captain Harmanpreet Singh has scored only one penalty corner out of the 16 attempted. This will be a good opportunity for the captain to play under less pressure and can play at his best. Also, India can try out Varun on a few PC as the drag-flicker was impressive in the previous game against New Zealand scoring a goal through a penalty corner in the absence of Harmanpreet Singh.

Japan

Japan finished last in the pool stages losing all three games in pool B (Belgium, Germany, and South Korea). The Asian side had a close game against South Korea with the latter winning and getting through to the crossovers and ultimately the quarterfinals. Japan has scored only two and conceded 12 goals in three games out of which ten goals were conceded in two games itself (Germany and Belgium). Japan has nothing to lose and shall look to put up a good fight against hosts India. Also, the two sides can meet each other at the upcoming 2022 Asian Games.

India vs Japan Head to Head

Japan and India have met each other 91 times.

India – 81

Japan – 06

Draw – 04

H2h Hockey World Cup

Played: 02

India: 01

New Zealand: 01 

Draw: 00

Team News

No injuries have been reported from hosts India and Japan.

Squad

India

P.R. Sreejesh, Krishna Pathak, Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh (Captain), Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas (Vice Captain), Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Manpreet Singh,  Rajkumar Pal, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh.

Japan

Yamasaki Koji, Yamada Shota, Kawamura Yusuke, Kawahara Yamato, Tanaka Seren, Fukuda Kentaro, Takade Taiki, Niwa Takuma, Nagai Yuma, Fujishima Raiki, Nagayoshi Ken, Saito Hiro, Kato Ryosei, Ooka Ryoma, Ohashi Masaki, Tanaka Kaito, Kuroda Kisho, Ochiai Hiromasa, Kobayashi Masato, Yoshikawa Takashi.

Telecast

The match between India and Japan will take place at the Birsa Munda International Stadium in Rourkela on Sunday (26 January 2023). The live broadcast will begin at 7:00 PM IST on Star Sports 2, Star Sports First, and Star Sports Select 2 HD.

Fans can also watch the live stream on Disney+ Hotstar app, watch.hockey app or website.