INCHEON: Reigning champions Pakistan will launch their campaign in the XVII Asian Games hockey competition on Saturday when they face minnows Sri Lanka in their opening group “A” match here at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium.

This will be a rare contest between 2010 Asian Games champion Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

However, it will be big test of Sri Lanka players as they are facing a major team after a long period.

“We know the Sri Lankans are not a very powerful team. But we will not take them lightly as every match is important,” chief coach Shahnaz Shaikh said on Friday.

He said they are looking forward to start in a confident fashion regardless of the opponent. “We cannot afford any complacency,” the former Olympian remarked.

While Mohammad Imran’s Pakistan were unable to get a good match practice against some of the big teams ahead of Asiad, the question remains as to why they could not arrange matches against lesser teams like Bangladesh, Japan and Korea to stay in the groove.

“Yes, I believe that Pakistan team needed a couple of good practice matches against the participating teams but those could not be arranged for one reason or the other,” admitted Shahnaz.

In the upcoming games, Pakistan will be facing a stiff challenge from hosts South Korea, arch-rival India and Malaysia in their bid to retain their title which they won at Guangzhou (China) four years ago.

Pakistan will be playing their showpiece encounter against India on Sept 25 which is expected to decide the fate of the Group “A” standing.

Pakistan is drawn in pool “A” alongwith India, China, Sri Lanka and Oman while pool “B” consists of Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

Pakistan will be up against the super-fit Chinese on Sunday and after a two-day rest, they will play India while their last group tie will be against minnows Oman on Sept 27.

In the other matches on the opening day, Japan play Bangladesh, Malaysia take on Singapore and China will be up against Oman.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2014