New Delhi: The Hockey Federation of India on Friday named a 33-member probable list of players ahead of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and Commonwealth Games, both of which will kickstart the upcoming season.
In what promises to be gruelling season for the players, it will also be the most crucial one with a host of major events lined up one after another, that starts with the prestigious 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2018 between March 3 to March 10 followed by the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games starting April 4.
But the Asian Games starting months later in August will be India’s litmus test where the players will not just defend it’s gold medal for a place at the 2020 Olympics Games but also fight to retain its status of being ASIA’s no 1 hockey team.
India will also come up against top nations in the FIH Champions Trophy in Breda, Netherlands and at the World Cup in Bhubaneswar later this year.
Returning from a successful outing in New Zealand where many of India’s young players were given a run, with as many as four players even making their debut, the 33 players are expected to return to the national camp, starting this Sunday at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Bengaluru.
The men’s team are set to train for the next two weeks at Sports Authority of India (SAI) as a preparatory camp for the Azlan Shah Cup and head coach Sjoerd Marijne feels that two weeks should be sufficient to evaluate the team’s performance in New Zealand and also chuk out the final 18-list of players.
“The next two weeks will not just be about evaluating our performance in New Zealand but also to implement the changes to improve really fast. We have short time to ready the 18 players for Sultan Azlan Shah Cup but with a two-week break, I can expect the players to come back fresh and hungry for the ball,” said Marijne as quoted by the Press Trust of India.
“I don’t want the team to be busy with the things we cannot control such as outside pressure of winning,” he added. “I want them to go match-by-match, tournament-by- tournament and embrace the challenge of playing big events. I need them to not just be physically at their 100 per cent but also mentally and for that we will work with players individually.”
At the Sultan Azlan Shah competition, India will square off against the world’s top two ranked teams in Australia and Argentina as well as England, whom they will also face at the Commonwealth Games and talking of facing such strong oppositions early into the season, the Netherlands born coach Marijne added that it will be a huge opportunity for India, to find out how good they are against the top teams.
“We just did well against World No.3 in both New Zealand and the Hockey World League Final in Bhubaneswar, now we play World No.1 and World. No.2 which will be yet another chance to gain knowledge about their different playing styles,” he concluded.
FINAL LIST OF 33-LIST OF PLAYERS:
Goalkeepers: Akash Anil Chikte, Suraj Karkera, PR Sreejesh, Krishan B Pathak
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Dipsan Tirkey, Varun Kumar, Rupinderpal Singh, Birendra Lakra, Surender Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Sardar Singh
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Chinglensana Singh, SK Uthappa, Sumit, Kothajit Singh, Satbir Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Simranjeet Singh, Harjeet Singh
Forwards: SV Sunil, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Armaan Qureshi, Affan Yousuf, Talwinder Singh, Sumit Kumar.