Ipoh [Malaysia], November 23 (ANI): The Indian men's hockey team will kickstart their Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2025 campaign from Sunday onwards with the opening clash against South Korea.

The tournament is organised by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC), sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), and was held for the first time in 1983. It is a consistent fixture of the hockey calendar and an invitational tournament named after the former FIH executive board member Sultan Azlan Shah.

Six teams, Belgium, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, South Korea and Canada will be competing for the title, and this marks India's first appearance in the competition since 2019, when they ended as runners-up, as per Olympics.com.

Team India is led by Sanjay, filling in the massive shoes of superstar drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh and is fielding a squad missing bigger names like Krishna Bahadur Pathak, Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, among others. But the new skipper does have support of seasoned veterans like Jugraj Singh, Amit Rohidas, Nilakanta Sharma and Vivek Sagar Prasad.

The tournament will have a round-robin format, with each team playing the others once, and the top two sides playing the title clash on November 30, with classification matches for the other four teams.

India is the second-most successful team in the tournament's history, with five titles, and their last trophy came way back in 2010. Australia, who is not featuring in the tournament this time, has won it 10 times, making them the most successful team to have graced the competition.

Japan had secured their maiden title last year, but are not featuring in this edition of the tournament.

Indian hockey squad for Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2025Goalkeepers: Pawan, Mohith Honnenahalli Shashikumar.

Defenders: Chandura Boby, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Yashdeep Siwach, Sanjay, Jugraj Singh, Amit Rohidas.

Midfielders: Rajinder Singh, Raj Kumar Pal, Nilakanta Sharma, Moirangthem Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Mohammed Raheel Mouseen.

Forwards: Sukhjeet Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Selvam Karthi, Aditya Arjun Lalage, Dilpreet Singh, Abhishek. (ANI)