If you glance through the FIH rankings, it appears tough for India and Pakistan, the two Asian representatives for the Champions Trophy in Bhubaneswar, to put it across their six opponents - all ranked above them. But in India's case, recent results make them serious contenders to end Asia's 20-year Champions Trophy jinx.
Pakistan is the only Asian team to have won the Champions trophy, winning the event thrice, but the last time was 20 years ago in 1994. Since then, while Pakistan have secured a bronze medal five times, India have been left to lick their wounds, including the one inflicted in 2012 when the archrivals met for the third-place playoff.
But this time the fortunes of the two traditional rivals are expected to swap places.
India have enjoyed rare back-to-back success this year, bagging a silver at Glasgow CWG, gold at the Incheon Asiad and a rare bilateral series win in Australia. That makes the 1982 bronze medallists - India's only medal at the event - a darkhorse for the title in the Temple City of India.
After bowing to Australia's dominance in the CWG final earlier this year, India travelled Down Under to spar with the world No. 1 team and managed to land a psychological blow. That made the world took notice if it considered a win via penalty shootout in the Asian Games final against Pakistan a lucky incident.
The Asian Games gold, in fact, got the monkey off India's back with a direct entry to Rio Olympics as the champions from Asia. That was huge relief for a team that is always reminded of missing the 2008 Beijing bus.
But since that victorious tour of Australia, off-field distractions have posed a serious threat to team's focus that has otherwise been at its best in the last 12 months.
Coach Terry Walsh, the man who should be credited for team's upswing in 2014, resigned from his job in unceremonious circumstances, and then was not welcomed when the Australian expressed his willingness to fly back to India under a new contract.
With 17 days left for the Champions Trophy at that stage, the Indian team was without a chief coach, prompting Hockey India to avail the services of their High Performance Director and former Netherlands coach Roelant Oltmans. The Dutchman will do the coach job in Bhubaneswar.
The Temple City of India has not hosted an international event like Champions Trophy and the blue turf of the 5000-capacity Kalinga Stadium eagerly awaits hockey's big guns to set foot on it.
Australia, winners of the last five editions, are the favourites to make it six in a row but like India, they too will miss their influential coach Ric Charlesworth who announced his retirement after winning the CWG gold in Glasgow.
The Aussies are in Pool A alongside Pakistan, Belgium and England. While there are no easy games in the Champions Trophy, the Aussies, captained by Eddie Ockenden, are expected to top the league stage.
India find themselves in the tougher of the two pools, alongside the current Olympic champions Germany, world No. 2 Netherlands and Argentina. However, the tournament format ensures all the eight teams progress to the quarter-finals irrespective of the results of the pool phase. But finishing high up in their respective pools will draw teams relatively easier opponents in the quarters.
"We are confident and aiming to continue the winning spree, which is surely not an easy task. But I am sure our team is in the form to take challenges," drag-flicker Rupinderpal Singh said making his team's intent very clear.
The tournament opens with a Pool-A game between Australia and England on Saturday, with India taking on Germany in the day's last fixture.
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