Doha: Bitter rivals India and Pakistan are gearing for an intriguing slugfest at the Asian Champions Trophy hockey which begins from December 20.

With a top prize at stake, the competition will be intense at Al Rayyan Stadium which culminates in the final on December 27.
The Asian powerhouses recently clashed in Australia during the Champions Trophy bronze medal match, where Pakistan finished on the winning side.

Pakistan enters the tournament as the top-ranked team and will clash with defending champions India on December 24, in eagerly awaited match of the championship.
India defeated Pakistan 4-2 via penalty shoot-out to win the first edition of the Asian Champions Trophy held in China last year.

The Pakistan team is due to arrive in Qatar on December 18 for the eight-day tournament. Arch rivals India will reach Doha tomorrow in the championship which officially opens at 3:00pm with a match between Malaysia and Japan.
China, Japan and Oman will be in Qatar on December 18 and Malaysia, which finished third in the last edition, is to troop in at the Doha International Airport tomorrow. Both, India and Pakistan have some bitter memories of their last journey to Qatar during the 2006 Asian Games.

Eight-time Olympic champions India failed to win a medal at Asian Games when they drew with South Korea 1-1 in a league match they had to win to advance to the semi-finals.
The Koreans went on to win a second successive gold medal with a 3-1 win over surprise finalists China, who knocked out Pakistan in the semi-finals.

The Koreans who finished eighth in the 2012 London Olympics will not be here, but the Chinese will be one of the team which is likely to give the two top-ranked countries a few headaches.
Meanwhile, the Indian selectors decided against tinkering with the team after India`s impressive outing in the Champions Trophy in Australia.

India reached the last four stage of the Champions Trophy for the first time this year since 2004.
India will be captained by the legendary Sardar Singh – who with over 150 international caps brings a vast amount of experience to the competition along with vice-captain VR Raghunath.
Pakistan will be arriving on a high after a third-place finish in Australia and will bring to Qatar a virtually unchanged squad from the Champions Trophy tournament.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation have confirmed Muhammad Imran as team captain for the tournament.
Malaysia also confirmed they will play a warm-up match against Qatar on December 18 at 7:00p.m.
The six-team tournament of Asian Hockey Federation will follow the round-robin format, with the top two teams contesting the final on December 27.

The rest of the teams will play for positions three to six positions on the same day when the final will be played.

Pakistan Squad: Imran Shah, Imran Butt, Syed Kashif Shah, Muhammad Imran (captain), Muhammad Rizwan Senior, Muhammad Tousiq, Fareed Ahmed, Rashid Mahmood, Muhammad Waqas (vice-captian), Shafqat Rasool, Abdul Haseem Khan, Ali Shan, Muhammad Ateeq, Waseem Ahmed, Muhammad Kashif Ali, Shakeel Abbasi, Muhammad Irfan, M Salman Hussain.

India Squad: PR Sreejesh, PT Rao, VR Raghunath (vice-captain), Rupinderpal Singh Harbir Singh, Sardar Singh (captain), Kothajit Singh, Birendra Lakra, Manpreet Singh, Gurmail Singh, S V Sunil, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Danish Mujtaba, S K Uthappa, Nithin Thimmaiah, Yuvraj Walmiki, Dharamvir Singh, Akashdeep Singh.

Courtesy: THE PENINSULA