Seniors-juniors hockey series in early October

International assignments ahead

KARACHI: PHF has decided that Pakistan senior and junior hockey teams would play a three-match series during the first two weeks of October in Lahore as part of their training for international assignments.

Pakistan senior hockey team will play Asian Champions Trophy in October in Malaysia. The Green-Shirts are the defending champions.

The junior team will play Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia in October-November.

Pakistan are to take part in Junior Hockey World Cup in December in India.

The dates of the three matches are yet to be decided.

The junior team’s chief coach Tahir Zaman said they had achieved the purpose of the European tour. “We wanted to give our boys experience of European-style hockey. They played against them bravely and defeated them convincingly, which is a big achievement,” said Tahir.

The juniors recently toured Spain and Netherlands. They won the test series against Spain’s junior team by 2-1.

“They applied in the tour whatever we had taught them in the training camps. They played with confidence and were able to defeat them,” Tahir said.

“Our forwards and flickers were both successful against Spain and European clubs.

“Forwards Shan Irshad, Dilbar and Atiq played well, made good moves and scored goals. Flickers Abu Bakar, Mubashir and Hasan Anwer scored goals on penalty corners. The performance of goalkeepers had not been satisfactory earlier, but in the tour both Ali Raza and Bilal Khalid played an important role,” Tahir added.

The coach said that in all three matches Pakistan juniors won the shootouts. “It meant that our goalkeepers and strikers both played well,” he added.

He said that Sultan of Johor Cup was very important, being the last test before the Junior World Cup 2016.

He said that playing against Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, England and India would be great learning experience for the boys. “The boys are able to surprise any big opponent,” he said.

He added the series against the seniors would be a great opportunity for boys to show their skills.