Lalit Upadhyay, Varun Kumar and Mandeep Singh slammed a hat-trick each as India started their men’s hockey campaign at the Asian Games with a 16-0 rout of lowly-ranked Uzbekistan here on Sunday.

Ranked third in the world, India began the match as clear favourites against the World No. 66 Uzbeks and expectedly dominated the proceedings from start to finish in the Pool A match. Lalit (7th, 24th, 37th, 53rd) and Varun (12th, 36th, 50th, 52nd) fired in four goals each, while Mandeep (18th, 27th, 28th minutes) found the net thrice.