New Delhi, June 17: Striker Deepak Thakur, eyeing to make a comeback after a brief lay-off due to injury, was among the probables who started their preparations for the four- nation hockey tournament in Hamburg in right earnest at the national stadium here today. Veteran striker Baljit Singh Dhillon and right-winger Mukesh Kumar were the notable absentees on the first day of the training camp as chief coach Rajinder Singh laid emphasis on weeding out weaknesses in certain key areas including short corner conversion and defense before the start of the tournament later this month.

India, who will embark on a week-long tour of Hamburg on June 23, will open their campaign with a match against Argentina on June 27. They will take on world champions Germany on June 28 and meet Spain the next day.

"We have to achieve excellence in all the departments of the game to emerge victorious against good teams like Australia and Germany", Rajinder Singh said. Aware that the Hamburg tournament will be India's last outing before the prestigious Champions trophy in August, the chief coach said he would like to give enough exposure to all the players.

"With Champions trophy less than two months to go, we are taking the Germany meet seriously. We are certainly not going to make too many changes to the side that played so well in Australia".

Bureau Report