Harjeet to lead junior men's hockey team at Asia Cup

New Delhi: Hockey India on Tuesday selected Harjeet Singh as the captain of an 18-member squad for the 8th Junior Men's Asia Cup to be held in Kuantan, Malaysia, later this month.

The tournament will feature the top eight countries from Asia who will be fighting for supremacy from November 14-22.

"The junior India squad which was announced in the midst of the ongoing national camp at the SAI centre in Bengaluru will have Harjeet as the skipper, who also was adjudged the Player of the Tournament in the recently concluded 5th Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia," Hockey India said in a statement.

Suraj Karkera and Vikas Dahiya will be the two goalkeepers. The defensive duties will fall to Dipsan Tirkey, Varun Kumar, Anand Lakra, Vikramjit Singh and Harmanpreet Singh. The midfield will see Harjeet alongside Nilakanta Sharma, Santa Singh, Manpreet Singh and Mangalsingh Chahal.

Mandeep Singh, Sumit Kumar, Arman Qureshi, Gurjant Singh, Mohd Umar and Ajit Kumar Pandey will be the forwards for India in the upcoming tournament.

"Malaysia is a known territory to us, and we are fresh in our memories from our performance in the 5th Sultan of Johor Cup. The team has been together for over two months now and that just adds to the comfort and performance standards," said junior men's team coach Harendra Singh.

"They operate as a team and will be collectively working towards glory. The energy in the camp is very positive and we are confident about putting a great show in Malaysia,” he added.

India are in Pool A and will play their opening match against Japan on November 14.