KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will open accounts against World No 1 Australia in the Darwin International at the Marrara Hockey Stadium in Australia tomorrow.
Yesterday, Australia played a friendly against World No 2 Argentina and won 1-0, indicating a tough time for Malaysia as well as Japan who make up the quadrangular.
Coach Amin Rahim's men will play Japan on Wednesday, and after a day’s rest, against Argentina.
Malaysia left out six regulars from the Darwin International as some were recovering from injuries after the Asian Games while others were rested to let the bench prove themselves.
The six who stayed back to undergo rehabilitation were Sukri Abdul Mutalib, Faizal Saari, Marhan Jalil, Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin, Nabil Fiqri and S. Kumar.
And their replacements were goalkeeper Hafizuddin Othman, Najib Hassan, Ashran Hamsani, Ramadan Rosli, Haziq Samsul and Norsyafiq Sumantri.
The skipper's band was handed to Malaysia's No 1 penalty corner flicker Razie Rahim, as regular Shukri is on the rested list.
Razie, who last skippered Malaysia in this year's Azlan Shah Cup, said: "I have no problem with the armband, as I believe my teammates like Faiz (Helmi Jali) and Fitri (Shaari) will help me organise the players for this tournament.
"All I expect in return is for my teammates, especially the younger ones, to have a high level of confidence as we will be up against the best in the world," said Razie.
The match against Japan will be interesting, as the Asian Games champions beat Malaysia in a shootout recently in Jakarta.
Malaysia had taken a 5-2 lead, but Japan equalised at 6-6 and then handed Malaysia a painful defeat in the shootout to deny Razie and his teammates a historic Asian Games gold and an Olympic ticket that came with it.