KARACHI - The Pakistan junior hockey team left here Tuesday morning for Dubai on its way via Mumbai to Hyderabad (India) to play in the eight-day eight-nation 6th men's Junior Asia Cup starting there July 11. The competition which also includes India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Oman and Singapore will also be Asian qualifying round for next year's World Junior Championship to be played in Europe. Three teams will qualify from Asia for the world event. Thailand and Sri Lanka have withdrawn from the competition after confirming to be part of it, thus reducing the 10-nation event to eight. The Junior World Cup Hockey Championship is one of the three major contributions that Pakistan had made to world hockey. Three World Hockey Cup and the exciting and popular Champions trophy are other two world events that Pakistan started from time to time. Pakistan team consist of 18 players and 6 officials, the squad. The team is: Imran Shah, Imran Butt, Kashif Ali, Muhammad Irfan, Imran Abbas, Khurram Shehzad, Muhammad Atiq, Zaheer Ahmed, Fareed Ahmed, Aamir Shahzad, Syed Adeel Hussain, Shafqat Rasool (captain), Muhammad Taufiq, Abdul Haseem Khan, Inayt Ullah, Muhammad Zubair, Muhammad Rizwan, Nasir Shahzad. Officials: Jehangir Butt (manager/chief coach), Danish Kaleem (coach), Kamran Ashraf (coach), Muhammad Akhtar (Physiotherapist), Irshad Haider (Video Analyst), Anwar Hussain (Umpire). Pakistan is placed in an easy pool B with Bangladesh, Oman and South Korea, the toughest and favourite team for the title of the event. In pool A is tougher and harder with India, the defending champions and Japan, Malaysia and Singapore other teams. Japan and Malaysia in recent year have shown considerable improvement and have challenged stronger teams like Korea, Pakistan and India. Match Schedule . July 11: Singapore v Malaysia, Oman v Pakistan, Bangladesh v Korea, India v Japan. July12: Singapore v Japan, Malaysia v India, July 13: Oman v Bangladesh, PAKISTAN v Korea, July 14: Japan v Malaysia, PAKISTAN v Bangladesh, Korea v Oman, India v Singapore. July 15: REST DAY July16: Match No.13: Pool A3 v Pool B4. Match 14: Pool B3 v Pool A4 Match 15: Pool A1 v Pool B2, Match 16: Pool B1 v Pool A2 July: 17: Matches for 5th to 8th positions: Loser Match 13 v Loser Match 14, Winner Match 13 v Winner Match 15. July 18: Matches for 3rd to 4th places: Loser Match 15 v Loser Match 16. Final: Winner Match 15 v Winner Match 16. The squad will return home on July 20 and will land at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport.