The Asian Hockey Champions Trophy 2026 is going to be played from Tuesday at the historic Olympian Surjeet Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar, which is the traditional stronghold and nursery of Indian hockey. It is a proud moment for sports lovers as Punjab is officially hosting a major international hockey tournament after a long gap of 17 years. Earlier in the year 2009, the prestigious Punjab Gold Cup was successfully organized on the soil of Punjab. This time, the five-time Asian champion Indian hockey team will make a strong start to its title campaign and take the field against Bangladesh. The match will start at 7:20 pm, while at 5 pm, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will formally inaugurate this much-awaited international competition amid colorful cultural programs.
To peak the enthusiasm of local sports fans, the administration and Hockey India have taken a historic decision to keep the entry completely free for the spectators at the Olympian Surjeet Hockey Stadium with a capacity of seven thousand spectators. With this, a large number of hockey lovers from Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and surrounding districts are expected to gather at the stadium. The most important thing is that in the current Indian senior team, a total of nine star players, including captain and world's best drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh, belong to Punjab. This will be the first time when all these great players will come on the turf wearing the Indian jersey at their home ground and in front of their home crowd at the international level with the intention of defeating the opposition team.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh looked full of confidence in the official press conference held on Monday before the first big match against Bangladesh. The captain clearly said that the team management has prepared a completely different and solid strategic plan to take the field against every opponent of the tournament. However, a blow to the Indian camp was that experienced midfielder and former captain Manpreet Singh will not be available for selection in the first match due to calf injury. Captain Harmanpreet clarified the situation and said that Manpreet's vast international experience will definitely be missed on the field, but our bench strength is very strong and in his place, young and dynamic midfielder Vivek Sagar Prasad has been included in the playing eleven.
The recent form of the Indian team has been excellent and there is a great balance of young enthusiasm and experienced stars in the team. This time, nine players from Punjab will make their mark in the Indian team, which includes captain Harmanpreet Singh, Jugraj Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Rajinder Singh, vice-captain Hardik Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh and Manpreet Singh. The extra enthusiasm and motivation that these players will have by playing on their home ground can prove to be the biggest headache for the opposition teams. In the forward line, the aggressive pair of Sukhjeet and Mandeep will take up the responsibility of scoring field goals, while in defence, the wall of Jugraj and Germanpreet looks impenetrable.
The Indian hockey team is the most successful team in the history of the Asian Champions Trophy. India has so far won this prestigious trophy a record five times i.e. in the years 2011, 2016, 2018 (joint winners with Pakistan in Oman), 2023 and 2024. After being consecutive champions in the last two editions, Indian Surma will enter the field this time with the clear intention of scoring a golden hat-trick of titles. After visiting various cities and sports academies across the state of Punjab, the glittering Asian Champions Trophy convoy reached the Surjit Stadium in Jalandhar on Monday, where it was welcomed in a grand style with drum beats and traditional Bhangra.
Hockey India Vice President and Hockey Punjab President Nitin Kohli, Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Varjeet Walia, Police Commissioner Satinder Singh along with Olympians Harpreet Singh Mander, Olympians Baljeet Singh Dhillon and Jagdeep Gill were specially present at the trophy reception. These legendary former players wished the current team all the best and expressed confidence that no one will be able to stop the victory chariot of the Indian team on the home ground. The turf of the ground has been renovated as per international standards and testing of flood lights has been completed so that players do not face any problem in playing high-speed hockey at night.
Among all the teams participating in the tournament, the Indian team has the highest ranking as the world number eight team, due to which it appears to have the heaviest advantage in every aspect. However, analysts believe that the Asian Games silver medalist Malaysia team has the potential to give a tough competition to India. India won the gold medal by defeating Malaysia in a tough match in the final of the Asian Games held in Japan. India and Malaysia will clash in the round-robin league stage of this tournament on November 1, which can prove to be the most exciting match for the spectators. Teams like Bangladesh, Korea, Japan and China are also preparing to give their full strength.
As per the organizational structure of the competition, all the exciting league matches of the tournament will be played at the Olympian Surjeet Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar. After this, all the teams will move to Mohali for the final stage of the tournament i.e. the knockout round. Olympian Balbir Singh Senior International Hockey Stadium, equipped with modern facilities in Mohali, will host the semi-final and final matches. In terms of security arrangements, Jalandhar Police has laid tight cordon around the stadium and implemented special route diversions to keep the traffic flowing so that thousands of fans coming to watch the match do not face any kind of inconvenience.