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Aug 17 (IANS) The Indian junior men's hockey team will begin its campaign at the 4 Nations Tournament--Dusseldorf 2023 against Spain on Friday, with strong hopes of winning the title ahead of the Men's Junior World Cup in Malaysia later this year.

India will square off against hosts Germany on Saturday, and England on August 21 with the Final set to take place on August 22. The tournament will be part of their preparations for the upcoming FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2023, scheduled to be played in Malaysia from December 5 to December 16, 2023.

The Indian team will be entering into the competition after the completion of the national coaching camp at SAI Centre in Bengaluru, which was held between June 2023 and August 2023.

Before the camp, the Indian junior men's team had qualified for the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2023 after winning the Men's Junior Asia Cup 2023 trophy in Oman, defeating traditional rivals Pakistan 2-1 in a thrilling Final. With the historic victory, India also set a new record for the most titles (4) won at the Men's Junior Asia Cup.

Vishnukant Singh will be leading the Indian junior men's team in the absence of Uttam Singh, who is unable to travel due to an injury he sustained during the training camp. He is looking forward to a strong performance by his boys in the 4 Nations Tournament.

Speaking on the importance of the tournament, Vishnukant said, "The tournament is a good opportunity for us to continue our growth and to gain experience of competing against some of the best teams in Europe, ahead of the all-important FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2023. We have strong and experienced players in our squad and we will hope to continue to perform in the same vein we have done in recent tournaments. It will be important for us to get favourable results to gain confidence."

The last time, the Indian junior men's hockey team played against Spain was at the 2019 8-Nations U-21 Men's Tournament in Madrid, where Spain had won 3-1. 

Since 2016, Spain and India have squared off four times in which India have won thrice, while Spain have won once. 

Meanwhile, the Indian junior men's hockey team last faced Germany in the FIH Odisha Hockey Men's Junior World Cup in Bhubaneswar in 2021 when India suffered a 2-4 defeat. Since 2013, India have played Germany on four occasions, and have won thrice, while Germany have won once.

Also, the Indian junior men's hockey team will take on England for the first time since their 5-3 win over the opposition at the Uttar Pradesh Hockey Junior World Cup in Lucknow in 2016. This will only be the third time the two teams will take on each other since 2013.

Meanwhile, CR Kumar, the head coach of the Indian junior men's hockey team, said it will be a tough tournament.

"Spain, Germany and England are all strong teams and we have closely followed their past few games. But our primary focus will remain on implementing our plans and playing according to our strengths. We have worked on certain areas at the camp where we needed to improve upon, and we will stick to our strategies to get positive results on the tour," he was quoted as saying in a release by Hockey India on Thursday.

India's schedule at the 4 Nations Tournament:

Aug 18: India vs Spain at 1430 hrs IST
Aug 19: India vs Germany at 2230 hrs IST
Aug 21: India vs England at 1330 hrs IST.