Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov.13: Members of the Indian men’s hockey team, including skipper Manpreet Singh and veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, will report to the ongoing national camp in Bhubaneswar on Sunday ahead of the Hero Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka next month. The national camp started on November 10 without any members of the bronze medal-winning team. On Saturday, Manpreet and Sreejesh will receive the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award before departing for the training.
Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Hardik Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, and Varun Kumar, who were all awarded the Arjuna award for their historic performance in the Tokyo Olympics, will also join the camp on Sunday.
After his campaign with the India junior squad in the FIH men’s Junior World Cup, which will be contested in Bhubaneswar from November 24 to December 5, Vivek Sagar Prasad, who is also in New Delhi for the Arjuna award ceremony, will join the senior camp.
The 30-person core group is expected to camp in Bhubaneswar until December 9.
The core group also includes Akashdeep Singh, Gurinder Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Krishan B Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Jaskaran Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Raj Kumar Pal, Gursahibjit Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Shilanand Lakra, Mandeep Mor, Ashis Kumar Topno and Suman Beck.
“It will be good to have the senior men’s team train in Bhubaneswar as the weather here is almost similar to that of Dhaka. It will be great for the team to train in these conditions and get acclimatised,” chief coach Graham Reid said in a release.
“We will also be playing a few internal matches between the senior and the junior core probables that will surely help in our preparations for the Junior World Cup,” he said.
“The season next year will be busy for the senior squad with back-to-back major international tournaments and it will be great to kick off the year by defending the Asian Champions Trophy,” he added.
Asian Champions Trophy will be held in Bangladesh, with defending champions India, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and hosts Bangladesh competing for the title from December 14 to 22.
Senior men’s core group:
Goalkeeper: PR Sreejesh, Krishan B Pathak, Suraj Karkera.
Defender: Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Varun Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Dipsan Tirkey, Mandeep Mor, Ashis Kumar Topno, Suman Beck.
Midfielder: Manpreet Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Hardik Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Raj Kumar Pal.
Forward: Simranjeet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Akashdeep Singh, Gursahibjit Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Dilpreet Singh.
