New Delhi, June 22: Deepak Thakur made an expected comeback into the national team after a brief injury lay-off as the Indian Hockey Federation today named an 18-member squad for the four-nation Hamburg Masters later this month. Thakur and V S Vinay were the two inclusions into the 20-member side that played a two-leg tournament in Australia recently, while four players including former captain Mukesh Kumar were left out.

Mukesh Kumar had made himself unavailable for this tournament citing family problems.

Others to have been left out are Prabodh Tirkey, Tushar Khandekar and Arjun Halappa.

The team, led by striker Dhanraj Pillay, will play against Germany, Spain and Argentina in the Hamburg Masters in Hamburg from June 27 to 29. It will also play a one-off test against Germany at Duisburg on June 25.

Team: Devesh Chauhan, Kamaldeep Singh, Dilip Tirkey, Kanwalpreet Singh, Jugraj Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Viren Rasquinha, Vikram Pillay, Bimal Lakra, V S Vinay, Baljit Singh Saini, Gagan Ajit Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Tejbir Singh, Deepak Thakur, Sandeep Michael, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Dhanraj Pillay.

Chief coach: Rajinder Singh

Coach: Baldev Singh

Physical trainer: Sampath Kumar

Umpire: Suresh Bhatia.

Bureau Report