London: The four-nation London Olympics Hockey Test event will start at the Olympic Park here from Wednesday with India pitted against World Champions Australia in their opening match.

The Indian team arrived in London Saturday and have had three practice sessions on the new blue synthetic turf at the Riverbank Arena. The ink blue turf pitch has pink runways on which matches will be played with yellow kookaburra balls.

The other three teams in the tournament are Australia, Germany and Britain, who are all ranked higher than India.

The tournament provides the Indian team the exposure of playing at the Olympic venue.

In other matches, India play against Britain Thursday and Germany Saturday.

The Olympic Games will be held from July 27 to Aug 12. (IANS)