RANCHI: The Indian women's team will begin its campaign at the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy with a clash against Thailand here on October 27, according to the schedule announced by Hockey India on Tuesday.
The tournament will begin with Malaysia and Japan playing the first game, while hosts India will play the third game of the opening day when they take on Thailand at Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astro Turf hockey stadium here.
The Asian Champions Trophy will see Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, China, and India go into battle to lift the coveted trophy.
The six-team tournament will conclude on November 5.
Hosts India have been in good form, particularly after the historic bronze at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and title victory at FIH Hockey Women's Nations Cup Spain last year.
The hosts have also won the Asian Champions Trophy in 2016 and were runners-up in 2018.
They will face Korea in their last match of the group stage on November 2.
"We are proud to host another major Asian tournament and I'm sure the Women's Asian Champions Trophy will be a great spectacle with some of the top women's hockey teams in the world participating in the tournament," HI President Dilip Tirkey said in a release.
"The announcement of the schedule signals the start of the final stages before the tournament and we cannot wait for this extravaganza to begin," he said.
All the participating teams are part of One Pool and the top four teams will qualify for the semifinals, where the team finishing on top of the table will take on the team that finishes fourth and the teams finishing second and third will play each other to decide the finalists.
Defending champions Japan will face a stiff challenge from Korea, the most decorated team in the history of the tournament which has won three out of six editions of the tournament in 2010, 2011, and 2016.