Japanese Hockey team is the first foreign side to reach the capital on Wednesday (December 8)  night to participate in the six-nation Hero Asian Champions Trophy (Hockey) ‘2021 beginning on January 14 at the Maulana Bhashani National Stadium here. Six participating countries are: India, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Pakistan and hosts Bangladesh. The Korean team, which earlier scheduled to reach Dhaka Wednesday night, is expected to arrive in the capital Thursday night. India will be the 3rd foreign team to arrive here on Friday (Dec 10) at 12:30 hours by an Air India flight while Pakistan team scheduled to reach Dhaka at 16:40 hours on the same day (Friday). Malaysian team  will be the last foreign team to reach here on Sunday (Dec 12) at 22:00 hours by a Malindo Air flight. Read: Champions Hockey: 4 more players included in Bangladesh’s preliminary squad Meanwhile, the Japanese team made their first practice session here Thursday afternoon.  India will play Korea in the opening match at 3:30 pm on Jan 14. Bangladesh will play Malaysia at 6; pm while Pakistan will play Japan at 8:30 pm in other two opening day’s fixture. In the remaining matches, Bangladesh will play their giant neighbor Indian on Dec 15 at 3:30 pm, play Korea on Dec 17 at 8:30 pm, face Japan on Dec 18 at 6 pm and meet Pakistan on Dec 19 at 8:30 pm. The titan battle between two arch-rivals India and Pakistan will be held on Jan 17 at pm 3:30 pm. After a recess on Dec 20, the two semifinals and the 5th place deciding match will be held on Dec 21 and the final and the 3rd place deciding match will be held on December 22.    Earlier, Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) announced a 28-member preliminary squad of Bangladesh national hockey team for the heavy weight tournament and later they added four more players in the squad as per requirement of the team’s Malaysia Head Coach Gobinathan Krishnamurty. The training session of Bangladesh team began on December  1 at BKSP in Savar. Read: Premier Hockey: Mariner Youngs clinch title beating Mohammedan 3-2 The four newly recruited players are: Al Nahian Shuvo, Raju Ahmed Tapu, Abed Uddin and Razibul Hasan Rocky.    28-member Bangladesh squad: Biplob Kujur, Abu Sayed Nippon, Ashim Gop (goal keeper), Khorshedur Rahman, Farhad Ahmed, Ashraful Islam, Shohanaur Rahman Sabuj, Mehdi Hasam, Rezaul Karim Babu, Monoj Babu, Shafiul Alam Shisir, Sarwar Morshad Shawon and Khaled Mahmud Rakin (defender), Sarwar Hossain, Roman Sarkar, Nayeemuddin, Fazle Hossain Rabbi, Hasan Jubair Niloy, Prince Lal Samanta (mid-field), Rasel Mahmud Jummy, Milan Hossain, Mainul Islam Kaushik, Arshad Hossain, Mahbub Hossain, Deen Islam Emon, Rakibul Hasan, Pushkar Kisha Mimo and Rajub Das.