Bangladesh hockey team will begin their Asia Cup campaign when they will take mighty South Korea in their Pool B match at the Bung Karno Sports Arena in Jakarta, Indonesia today.
The game will begin at 1:00pm Bangladesh Standard Time following the tournament opener between the other two Pool B teams Malaysia and Oman.
Bangladesh go into the match as underdogs as they have never won a match against South Korea in their previous four meetings since August 2013.
Bangladesh qualified for the eleventh edition of the tournament as the Men’s AHF Cup champions in 2022 while South Korea automatically qualified as the fourth-place finishers in Men’s Asia Cup 2017.
In the other pool games, Malaysian coach Iman Gobinathan Krishnamurthy’s charges will take on Oman and Malaysia on May 24 and 26 respectively.
The Pool A is comprised of defending champions India and Pakistan – both won this tournament title three times each — Japan and Indonesia.
The top three teams of this tournament will qualify for the next Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup to be held in India in 2023.
Reaching in Jakarta on May 17, Bangladesh played two warm-up matches on May 19 and 21 where they won against Indonesia 2-1 and conceded 1-5 loss against India respectively.