India name 18-member team for Sultan of Johor Cup

India will be participating in the tournament after a gap of a year. They finished second in the fifth Sultan of Johor Cup in 2015 where they lost to Great Britain in the final.

Courtesy: Hockey India

New Delhi: India on Saturday named an 18-member men's junior team for the seventh Sultan of Johor Cup which begins in Johor Bahru, Malaysia from October 22.

The team will be captained by Vivek Sagar Prasad while Pratap Lakra has been named as the vice-captain.

India will take on Japan in the opening match of the tournament.

The Indian colts have been training for the tournament at the National Camp at SAI, Lucknow since September 11.

During the course of the camp, India's junior men's team coach Jude Felix has tried and tested all players from the core group before selecting a balanced squad.

The Indians will be participating in the tournament after a gap of a year. They finished second in the fifth Sultan of Johor Cup in 2015 where they lost to Great Britain in the final.

"The junior men's team has been training with the objective of performing well at the upcoming Sultan of Johor Cup. We have a very strong pool of players at the junior level who believe in themselves, and this tournament will give the right amount of exposure," coach Felix said.

"I believe this will be a start to our long-term objective of retaining the World Cup title at this level," he added.

Besides India, other participating teams in the tournament are Japan, hosts Malaysia, USA, Australia and Great Britain.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Pankaj Kumar Rajak, Senthamizh Arasu Shankar.
Defenders: Suman Beck, Pratap Lakra (vice-captain), Sukhjeet Singh, Varinder Singh, Mandeep Mor, Sanjay.
Midfielders: Harmanjit Singh, Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem, Vivek Sagar Prasad (captain), Vishal Singh, Vishal Antil.
Forwards: Shilanand Lakra, Raushan Kumar, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh, Maninder Singh.