Asian Champions Trophy Pauses on Wednesday, Then India Face China on Thursday Night
Don’t go looking for Asian Champions Trophy hockey on Wednesday. There isn’t any, and that’s the plan, not a postponement. Wednesday 28 October is the first rest day of the tournament. Six teams, five league games each, and the schedule builds in three breaks, on 28 and 31 October and 3 November, before the semifinals in Mohali on 4 November and the medal games on 5 November. After three games in one day to open, a day off is the sensible bit of the calendar, and the teams will use it.
Thursday is when it gets serious again. Malaysia play South Korea at 2:00pm PKT, Bangladesh play Japan at 4:15pm PKT, and India play China at 6:30pm PKT, back in the evening slot at the Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar. All three games matter, because in a six-team round-robin where four go through, the second game is where the table starts to take shape. Win your first two and you’re nearly there. Lose them and you’re relying on other results by the weekend.
India v China is the night game. India against China is the one to watch on Thursday. China are the side in this field that nobody quite has a read on yet, and India, the defending champions chasing a sixth title, will want a second win to go with whatever opening night brings against Bangladesh. India’s other league games follow the same evening pattern: Japan on 30 October, Malaysia on 1 November and South Korea on 2 November, all at 6:30pm PKT, with only the opener starting later because of the ceremony.
Malaysia against Korea opens the day, and it’s a proper contest too. Malaysia arrived as Asian Games silver medallists, Korea finished fourth at the Asian Games, and both will see Thursday as a game they need if they’re going to finish in the top two and avoid the hardest semifinal. Bangladesh against Japan is the middle game, and Bangladesh will be looking for a first foothold in the tournament after the hardest possible start against the hosts.
For our money, Thursday decides more than it looks like it should. By the end of the night, we’ll know which two teams are controlling this tournament and which ones are already chasing.
Related links:
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https://sportscursor.com/asian-champions-trophy-eve-harmanpreet-every-team-here-to-win-26-october-2026/
https://sportscursor.com/manpreet-singh-ruled-out-asian-champions-trophy-vivek-sagar-prasad-26-october-2026/
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