Success in modern hockey is achieved when a team have the perfect balance of youth and experience. Some of the world’s best teams like Belgium, Australia and even India, have done well based on this composition.

Serious dearth of experience

However, there is a serious dearth of experience in the seventh edition of the Asia Cup here. As if the poor rankings of some of the teams like China (World No. 25), Japan (19) and Pakistan (17) were not a good enough indicator that the quality of hockey may not be of the highest standards, the inexperience factor means there are glitches galore.