Hockey India on Sunday named a 39-member core probable group for the senior men’s national coaching camp scheduled to be held from August 21 to September 18 at SAI Centre in Bengaluru.
The camp will serve as an opportunity for the players to gear up for the all-important Hangzhou Asian Games, which is scheduled to be held from September 23 to October 8 in China.
The Indian men’s hockey team will begin their campaign in the Hangzhou Asian Games against Uzbekistan on September 24. India are placed in Pool A along with Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh, Singapore, and Uzbekistan. The Indian team will head into the Asian Games high on confidence, having won the Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai recently.
India were unbeaten in the Asian Champions Trophy, winning their first game 7-2 against China, drawing 1-1 against Japan before beating Malaysia 5-0 and winning against South Korea 3-2. They also defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 4-0 in a group-stage game.
In the knockout round, India beat Japan 5-0 in the semifinal and staged a remarkable comeback in the final to beat Malaysia and win the title for the record fourth time.
Talking about the upcoming national coaching camp, chief coach Craig Fulton said, “Over the past few months, we have shown that we are growing as a team and learning constantly. The camp is an important one for us as we are spearheading our preparations for the Hangzhou Asian Games which could be our road to securing a spot for the Paris Olympics 2024.
"In the Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai, we played really good hockey and given the fact that we remained unbeaten in the tournament shows that we are heading in the right direction, and we want to keep that going in upcoming tournaments.”
Meanwhile, the Indian men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh said, “The camp will be an opportunity for us to work in certain areas and to work together as a unit. We displayed solid team performance in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy, and it is important for us to keep the same momentum going,” he added.
List of players in India’s 39-member core-probable group:
Goalkeepers: Krishan Bahadur Pathak, PR Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera, Pawan, Prashant Kumar Chauhan
Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Gurinder Singh, Jugraj Singh, Mandeep Mor, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Sanjay, Yashdeep Siwach, Dipsan Tirkey, Manjeet
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Shamsher Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Rajkumar Pal, Sumit, Akashdeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mohd. Raheel Mouseen, Maninder Singh
Forwards: S. Karthi, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Pawan Rajbhar.