India and Pakistan have been clubbed together in Pool B for the upcoming Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup. The draw ceremony held in Lausanne, Switzerland on Saturday revealed the six pools of the expanded tournament, which will feature 24 teams for the first time this year. It will be hosted in the cities of Chennai and Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Defending champions Germany are clubbed with South Africa, Canada, and Ireland in Pool A.
The draw comes amid doubts over Pakistan’s participation in sporting tournaments held in India due to heightened tensions between the neighbouring countries. India also host the Women’s Cricket World Cup from September this year but Pakistan will be playing all of their matches in Sri Lanka, including the knockouts if they make it to that stage. The country’s junior hockey team were unable to travel to India for the 2016 edition of the tournament, which was hosted in Lucknow just over a month after the Uri terror attack. They were eventually replaced by Malaysia.
Chile and Switzerland complete the lineup in Pool B. Pool E is dubbed as the group of death with the Netherlands, Malaysia, and England together, while Pool F can also be tricky with current runner-ups France and Australia clubbed with Korea and Bangladesh.
A total of 36 matches will be played in the pool phase, with the teams topping their pool and the two best second-placed teams making it to the quarter-finals. The rest of the teams will be ranked on how they finished in their pool and will play the crossover to determine their place in the 9th to 16th place playoffs and the 17th to 24th place playoffs.
Germany are the current Junior Men’s World Champions, having defeated France 2–1 in the final of the 2023 edition, to win a record-extending seventh title. Current Hosts India finished at fourth place in the last edition of the tournament after losing in the bronze medal match to Spain 3-1.