India and Pakistan last faced off in the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. (Source: Hockey India Twitter, file)
India coach Sjoerd Marijne admitted that his team “start favourites” ahead of their opening Pool B encounter against Pakistan. This is the first match between the two sides since the Asia Cup semi-finals in 2017 that India won 4-0. India and Pakistan have played two times in the Commonwealth Games before and have both won once each.
Roelant Oltmans, who was India’s coach until September 2017, would still be present for the match at Gold Coast, albeit wearing a Pakistan jacket. The Commonwealth Games is his first assignment as head coach of the Pakistan team and he will be hoping that his familiarity with the Indian team that has come out of his long association with the hockey setup in the country would serve his side well. His coaching career with Pakistan didn’t get off to the best of starts though, as they drew 1-1 with Wales who are 10 places below them in the world rankings in their first match at Gold Coast 2018.
Although Pakistan may lead India in the historic head-to-head between the two teams, the latter have raced ahead over the last couple of years. In fact, the two teams faced each other on four occassions in 2017 and India enjoyed easy wins in all the matches. Pakistan won’t take too much motivation from the last time the two sides faced each other at the Commonwealth Games. That was at Delhi 2010 and India won that match 7-4. The other three teams in the pool are England, Wales and Malaysia. India and England are favourites to go through and Manpreet Singh and co. will be hoping for a perfect start with a win over Pakistan.