Bhubaneswar, Nov 26: Hockey India named the 20-member men’s team for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy on Friday, which is scheduled to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh between December 14-22.
Olympic bronze medal-winning team and defending champions India will kick start their campaign on the opening day against Korea, followed by a match against hosts Bangladesh on December 15. India will then meet arch-rivals Pakistan, Malaysia, and Japan on December 17, 18, and 19 respectively in the single-pool tournament for top honours.
While Manpreet Singh will lead the side along with dragflicker Harmanpreet Singh as his deputy, veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh doesn’t feature in the squad. Team India includes goalkeepers Krishan B Pathak and Suraj Karkera. The defence will see Harmanpreet lead the charge along with Gurinder Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Dipsan Tirkey, Varun Kumar and Mandeep Mor.
The midfield will see Hardik Singh, Manpreet, Jaskaran Singh, Sumit, Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh and the experienced Akashdeep Singh. The forwardline will be led by Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Dilpreet Singh, Gursahibjit Singh and Shilanand Lakra.
Talking about the selection, India head coach Graham Reid said, “While selecting this team we now must have our eyes on the future. It takes a deep and strong squad to build sustained success so players have to be given opportunities to perform.”
“We have picked a team that has a good mix of experience and younger guys who will have their chance to show what they can do. It is a hectic match schedule and given the COVID situation FIH & AHF have allowed 18 players to be chosen each game out of a greater squad of 20. The Asian Champions Trophy is a World Class event that will provide all teams a fantastic opportunity to start the next Olympiad with much needed competition. We are looking forward to the challenge,” Reid added.
The semifinals will be played on December 21, followed by the final on December 22. In the previous edition of Asian Champions Trophy, which was held in Muscat, Oman, India jointly lifted the trophy along side Pakistan after the final was called off due to incessant rains.
Indian squad: Krishan Bahadur Pathak (GK), Suraj Karkera, Harmanpreet Singh (VC), Gurinder Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Varun Kumar, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Mandeep Mor, Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh (C), Jaskaran Singh, Sumit, Rajkumar Pal, Akashdeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Dilpreet Singh, Gursahibjit Singh, Shilanand Lakra.
