Champions Trophy Hockey: Sardar Singh to Lead India, P.R. Sreejesh Vice-Captain
Champions Trophy hosts India are on a high after winning the Asian Games gold and the four-Test series against Australia in Perth recently. Sardar Singh and P.R. Sreejesh will be two of the most experienced campaigners in the tournament.
Sardar Singh will lead India in the eight-team men's Champions Trophy to be played in Bhubaneswar from December 6-14. Veteran goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh will be Sardar's deputy.
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India named an 18-member squad after selection trials at Delhi's National Stadium, New Delhi on November 18. Twenty-six probable went through the trials. Only injured Akashdeep Singh was unable to attend the same.
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India will play their first match against Germany on December 6. This will be followed by clashes against Argentina (December 7) and Netherlands (December 9).
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Speaking on the team structure and current form, High Performance director, Roelant Oltmans said, "Team India is in superb form and after a remarkable performance in 2014 Asian Games and Test series in Australia, we are more than confident of doing well in this tournament. The team selected has the right combination and will give a tough time to the opponents."
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SQUAD: (Goalkeepers) 1. P.R. Sreejesh-Vice Captain (115 Caps); 2. Harjot Singh (6 Caps). (Defenders) 3. Rupinder Pal Singh (101 Caps), 4. V.R. Raghunath (176 Caps), 5. Birendra Lakra (87 Caps), 6. Kothajit Singh (87 Caps), 7. Gurbaj Singh (180 Caps), 8. Gurjinder Singh (19 Caps). (Midfielders) 9. Manpreet Singh (112 Caps), 10. Sardar Singh - Captain (200 Caps), 11. Dharamvir Singh (90 caps), 12. Danish Mujtaba (127 Caps), 13. S.K. Uthappa (58 Caps). (Forwards) 14. Ramandeep Singh (26 Caps), 15. SV Sunil (153 Caps), 16. Akashdeep Singh (56 Caps), 17. Nikkin Thimmaiah (27 Caps), 18. Lalit Upadhyay (9 Caps).