The Indian men's hockey team opened their Asian Champions Trophy campaign with a big 13-0 win over Bangladesh at the Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar on Tuesday.
The defending champions were expected to dominate the proceedings and there was no deviation from the script as they scored goals throughout the four quarters.
Mandeep Singh, in front of his home crowd, scored a brilliant hat trick. India captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace as well as Dilpreet Singh and Hardik Singh. Abhishek, Shilanand Lakra, Jugraj Singh and Nilakanta Sharma also added a goal each.
Bangladesh tried to produce something from their counter attacks but couldn't do enough. They barely tested the Indian defence and their goalkeepers.
After the match, Nilakanta Sharma announced his retirement, his international career will come to end after the tournament. The Manipuri midfielder played for close to a decade for the national team and was part of some big wins, including at the Tokyo Olympics where the team won a bronze medal. Nilakanta was also part of the team which recently won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, helping India to also qualify for the LA Olympics 2028.
In the earlier games, Malaysia beat China 5-4 in a high-scoring thriller followed by Japan's 3-2 victory over South Korea.
India's next match will be against China on October 29.
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