Following emphatic wins over Japan and Bangladesh, Indian men’s hockey team will take on Pakistan in a high-voltage encounter of the Asia Cup in Dhaka on Sunday.

The two arch-rivals last played each other in the Hockey World League Semi Final in London earlier this year.

India skipper Manpreet Singh recalled the last meet, in which his boys routed Pakistan by 7-1 in the pool stage and followed it up with a 6-1 win in the classification match.

“What happened in London is history for us now. We did well there but to repeat similar results we want to focus on our game,” Manpreet stated on the eve of the match.

The 25-year-old midfielder asserted that his team will aim to come up with an overall performance against Pakistan and top the pool table. So far so good, the Indians are the favourites to win the title and currently are on top of the pool table with six points from two wins (against Japan 5-1 and Bangladesh 7-0) in Pool A.

“For hockey lovers, India- Pakistan is always a great game to watch. For us, we want to play them as any other opponent. We want to focus on our strategies against them and ensure we get to a good start and not concede early goals,” Manpreet added.

While Indian forward-line has showcased incredible form, the team continues to struggle on the penalty corner conversion. However, the Indian captain didn’t agree to the fact as he was quoted saying, “I don’t think our PC conversation is bad. Yes, we missed a few chances but you must also acknowledge that Bangladesh defence in PC was good.”

On the other hand, Pakistani skipper Muhammad Irfan insisted that the current team is different from the one in London and is hopeful of a good show on Super Sunday.

“What happened in London was different. I am aware we lost two back-to-back matches against India but the present Pakistan team is different with few of the senior players making a comeback. Our management has changed and I am confident we will put up a good show where hockey lovers from across the world will enjoy the match,” Irfan said.

Although Pakistan got off to a roaring start in this tournament with a 7-0 win against hosts Bangladesh, they stumbled against Japan as they settled for a 2-2 draw.

Pakistan desperately need to ensure a win against India to make the Super 4s stage.

“It is a must-win game for us otherwise we know it will come down to the match between Japan and Bangladesh and if Japan beat the hosts by a big margin then we are in trouble,” the 27-year-old Pakistani said.

Irfan rued the chances his forwards missed against Japan but is hopeful they won’t make the same mistakes against India. “We watched the video of the match against Japan. There were easy chances that we missed but we don’t want to repeat the same mistake against India. They are a strong team with good strategies but we want to focus on our individual skill,” he added.