Chance for Indian hockey team to experiment ahead of crucial dates
CHENNAI: India will begin 2018 — a year loaded with important assignments — at a Four-nation series in New Zealand, beginning on Wednesday. With the Commonwealth Games, Champions Trophy, Asian Games and World Cup scheduled to be held later in the year, the test in the invitational tournament gives Sjoerd Marijne an opportunity to experiment and whittle down his squad further ahead of those big meets.
The squad he has named also reflects this line of thinking — experienced campaigners like Sardar Singh and SV Sunil, a vital cog in the attacking department for close to a decade, have not been called up.
The Dutchman has handed debuts to two (Dilpreet Singh and Vivek Prasad) apart from handing recalls to the likes of Harjeet Singh (captain of the team which won the Junior World Cup) and Ramandeep Singh.
But of all the players in the team, one name stands out — former captain PR Sreejesh (in pic). The custodian is making his way back after an absence of close to eight months and it will be interesting to see what shape he is heading into a blockbuster year.
Teams: India, Japan, Belgium, New Zealand.
Squad
Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Krishan Pathak;
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Varun Kumar, Rupinderpal Singh, Biren Lakra
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh (c), Chinglensana Singh, Vivek Prasad, Harjeet Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Simranjeet Singh, Satbir Singh
Forwards: Dilpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar, Armaan Qureshi.
India’s schedule: Jan 17: vs Japan, Jan 18: vs Belgium, Jan 20: vs New Zealand, Jan 24: vs New Zealand, Jan 25: vs Belgium, Jan 27: vs Japan. Jan 28: 3/4th place and final.