Hockey India names unchanged men's squad for Asian Games

New Delhi: Hockey India (HI) Thursday named an unchanged 16-member men's squad to take part in the Asian Games to be held in the South Korean city of Incheon from Sep 19 to Oct 4.

The same team last month brought home the silver from the 20th Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow.

HI selectors B.P. Govinda, Harbinder Singh, R.P. Singh and Arjun Halappa along with director for high performance Roelant Oltmans and chief coach Terry Walsh chose the team on the basis of their performance in the Commonwealth Games, Bangladesh tour and selection trials conducted here Aug 11.

Midfielder Sardar Singh (191 caps) will once again lead the team with goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh (106 caps) as his deputy.

In the Asiad, India will play their first match against Sri Lanka Sep 21, followed by Oman Sep 23, Pakistan Sep 25 and China Sep 27. The top two teams from the group will proceed to the semi-finals.

Two-time winners in 1966 and 1998, India pocketed a bronze four years ago in Guangzhou. The team will depart for South Korea Sep 12.

“The whole team is fit and players are all charged up for the challenge of the Asian Games. The Commonwealth Games outing with a silver medal finish has really motivated the team and they are ready to deliver even better results at Asiad,” said Walsh.

“There are good teams in our pool along with defending champions Pakistan. We will play our first match against Sri Lanka and are looking for a positive start. The focus will be on one match at a time and will be progressing step-by-step for a cleansweep in pool matches.”

The squad:

Goalkeepers: P.R. Sreejesh (106 caps) (vice-captain)

Defenders: Gurbaj Singh (170), Birendra Lakra (77), Rupinder Pal Singh (95), Kothajit Singh (77), V.R. Raghunath (166)

Midfielders: Dharamvir Singh (81), Sardar Singh (191) (captain), Danish Mujtaba (117), Chinglensana Singh Kangujam (58), Manpreet Singh (103)

Forwards: Ramandeep Singh (17), Akashdeep Singh (47), S.V. Sunil (143), Gurwinder Singh Chandi (103), Nikkin Thimmaiah (17)