Asian Champions Trophy Reality Check for India
0
47
It was a tournament India entered as overwhelming favourites – their Olympic bronze medal achievement would have left even their ardent hockey lovers believing that the 6th Asian Champions Trophy would be a cakewalk given the yawning gap in world rankings between India (3rd) and other participating teams – South Korea (16th), Japan (17th) and Pakistan (18th). But the Asian Champions Trophy reinforced the fact that rankings don’t count much in international hockey – more importantly, rankings don’t really reflect behind-the-scenes improvements made by lesser-known or lower-ranked sides during their training drills.