Bangladesh face host Oman in the 10th edition of Men’s Hockey Junior Asia Cup that commences from tomorrow (Tuesday) at Salalah Sports Complex in Salalah, Oman.

The match kicks off at 10 pm (BST).

The players of Bangladesh hockey team went through nearly three month camp for the Asia Cup hockey. In addition, the Bangladesh hockey team played 10 practice matches in Haryana. In the history of hockey, Bangladesh has never had the benefit of such a big camp-practice match outside the country. In a word, Prince, Rocky, Amirul, Zahid and Abed stepped into Oman after being fully prepared.

After the team’s practice session today (Monday), Bangladesh’s Coach Mamun Ur Rashid and Captain Prince Lal Samanto are very confident about the win against Oman.

Ahead of the Oman match, Bangladesh team’s Head Coach Mamunur Rashid said they want to take to the field for win and aiming to start the tournament with victory.

Bangladesh’s Captain midfielder Prince Lal Samanto also found positive ahead of the Oman match.

He said that they have taken well preparation for the tournament having no injury problem in the team at the moment and everyone is ready to take the field. “Team’s preparations in Oman were also good,” Prince Lal added.

He said that if they able to play their natural game, his team have good chance to win against Oman because compared to the previous results Bangladesh’s winning record against Oman is not bad.

The captain said his team is a much better team than Oman in all aspects including skill and technique.

The tournament will serve as the Asian qualifier for the 2023 FIH Junior World Cup, with the top four qualifying, to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ten teams, divided into two pools, with pool A comprising Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Pakistan and Thailand while in pool B host Oman will be joined by Bangladesh, Korea, Malaysia and Uzbekistan.

Each team in the pool stage will play the other four teams in their pool once. The top two teams from both pools will qualify for the last four while the teams in third and fourth positions will compete for the 5-8 place classification.

The teams finishing in the fifth place in both pools will go head-to-head to avoid finishing in the 10th place.

The losing semi-finalists will play in the bronze medal match, with the two finalists and the bronze medalists qualifying for the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup 2023.

Bangladesh will play their remaining group matches against Malaysia, Uzbekistan and South Korea on May 25, 26 and 28 respectively.