India vs China LIVE at Men's Hockey Asia Cup: scores, updates, commentary, news

The Indian men's hockey team will begin their Asia Cup campaign on home soil in Rajgir, Bihar against China on Friday.

After last winning the tournament in 2017, India will look to reclaim the continental crown and also secure direct qualification for the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup.

The Men's Asia Cup has been one of the most prestigious events in Asian hockey with defending champions South Korea being the most successful team with five titles, while India are second with three. In the last edition, India finished third as they drew their semifinal game against South Korea who went ahead on a better goal difference.

Asia Cup Preview: Fulton banks on familiar faces and experience as India look to qualify for World Cup

India are drawn in Pool A alongside China, Japan and Kazakhstan. The team will open their campaign against China, followed by a clash against Japan on August 31 before concluding the group stage against Kazakhstan on September 1. Pool B consists of South Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The top two teams from each pool will advance to the Super 4s and the winner will earn automatic World Cup qualification.

Speaking about the team's preparations, Head coach Craig Fulton said, "Our preparation has been thorough. The camp in Perth gave us the right intensity, with tough training sessions and competitive matches that sharpened both our physical and tactical readiness. The group is training and playing with real purpose and we feel ready for the challenge ahead."

Captain Harmanpreet Singh said, "The preparations have been good. We achieved a lot in the camp and have done a lot of work as a team. Even our recent tour in Australia has been very useful for us because Asian teams too play man-to-man in a similar way to the Aussies."

India vs. China will start 3 PM IST.

You can follow the match on our live blog below: