Hockey India on Saturday named 34 players for the senior men's national camp slated to begin at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Bengaluru on February 18, ahead of the 28th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia, starting March 23.
Hockey is a sport in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.
All 18 players who took part at the Hockey Men's World Cup in Bhubaneswar last year have been retained for a month-long camp that concludes on March 18.
In June 2018, the Chief Minister of Indian state Odisha wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to declare field hockey as the national sports of India. The state government of Odisha has been supporting India's national field hockey team from February 2018 till the fhonext five years. The 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup was held in Odisha between November 28 and December 16 and culminated with Belgium as World Champions defeating the Netherlands in the finals. Field hockey was formerly India's National sport but this is no longer the case as the country now has no national sport.
The list also features Sultan of Johor Cup Silver-medal winning India Colts Shilanand Lakra, Suman Beck, Mandeep Mor, Yashdeep Siwach, Vishal Antil and Gursahabjit Singh who had figured in the 34-member camp for the 2018 World Cup. The youngsters have been credited for showing continued improvement and potential to match the standards at the senior level.
"The team for the 28th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup will be selected from this core group of 34 players after a selection trial is held in Bengaluru in the last week of February. I am happy to note that the junior players who have recently been inducted into the Senior Camp have shown significant improvement and that the depth in the group is strong." expressed David John, High-Performance Director, Hockey India.
Goalkeepers PR Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera, and Krishan Bahadur Pathak have been named in the group along with Defenders Harmanpreet Singh, Gurinder Singh, Varun Kumar, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Jarmanpreet Singh, Pardeep Singh, Suman Beck, Mandeep Mor, Birendra Lakra and Rupinder Pal Singh.
Midfielders Manpreet Singh, Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, Sumit, Simranjit Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Yashdeep Siwach and Vishal Antil have been called up.
Among forwards, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Sumit Kumar, Gursahabjit Singh, Shilanand Lakra and SV Sunil have been named.