Asian Champions Trophy 2026: Mandeep Singh hat-trick leads India’s 13-0 rout of Bangladesh

Abhishek, left, and Mandeep Singh were among the scorers for India in the big win over Bangladesh. | Photo Credit: AP

For a city hosting its first-ever international hockey tournament, the result of India’s opening match of the Asian Champions Trophy against Bangladesh was the perfect initiation. For coach Craig Fulton and the team’s long-term plans, less so.

With local boys among the scorers and the host stamping its authority in the 13-0 win on Tuesday the result ensured the full house had enough reasons to celebrate. Mandeep Singh, among the five players who began on this very ground of the Olympian Surjit Singh Stadium and one of the four seniors allegedly in the firing line, struck three of those and created as many, appearing to be proving a point to the naysayers.

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Captain Harmapreet Singh, another local hero, started the rampage in the second minute, India was up by four in the first 15 minutes and six at half time. The others in the spotlight – Jarmanpreet Singh and Amit Rohidas in the defence and Nilakanta Sharma in the middle – were also impressive with Nilakanta even scoring though to be fair, against an opponent that barely challenged the Indian might, it would be easy to get carried away.

But there is no denying that if the team management was planning on phasing out certain players – something that since then has been outrightly denied as false rumours by both Hockey India secretary general Bholanath Singh and Harmanpreet – Tuesday’s outing hasn’t made their job easier. Equally concerning would be India’s tendency to inexplicably find defensive blocks, as it did in the third quarter before slamming in three inside 90 seconds and finding the rhythm again in the fourth.

The highlight of the day was unarguably the drone show featuring the state, its culture and its sporting history and legacy sparkling against the night sky. The multi-coloured display through 500 drones was definitely a lot more impressive than the competition on the ground.

The results

India 13 (Harmanpreet Singh 2pc, 44pc, Mandeep Singh 3, 10, 54, Shilanand Lakra 15, Abhishek 18, Nilakanta Sharma 26, Dilpreet Singh 43pc, 44, Jugraj Singh 46pc, Hardik Singh 60, 60) bt Bangladesh 0

Malaysia 5 (Abu Kamal Azrai 4, 14, Akhimullah Anuar 14, Faizal Saari 34ps, Azimuddin Kamaruddin 35pc) bt China 4 (Yaqi Wang 11, Moda Ne12, Benhai Chen 27pc, 44pc)

Japan 3 (Kentaro Fukuda 14, Ryoma Ooka 36, Kazumasa Matsumoto 52) bt Korea 2 (Han Sangjun 15, Jeong Junseong 59)