Hockey India name 33 probables for senior men's national camp ahead of Olympic qualifiers

New Delhi: Hockey India on Saturday named a 33-member probables list for the senior men’s national coaching camp, beginning 2 September at the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Bengaluru Campus, to prepare for the Belgium Tour and the Olympic qualifiers.

The three-week camp will be conducted by coach Graham Reid at the helm.

Following the team’s recent victory in the Olympic Test event final against New Zealand, led by defender Harmanpreet Singh, the campers will be focused on remaining consistent in their performance.

“We have built some good momentum over the last few months. The players will come to this camp keen and ready to improve on all aspects of team performance. Creating more quality opportunities, improving our defensive capabilities and working together to make each other better are the key aspects of this camp,” Reid said.

He added that the tour of Belgium in September will be a great platform for the team to prepare for the FIH Olympic qualifiers.

“At the end of September, we will travel to Europe to play and train with some of the best competition in the world. We need to be prepared for that, which will provide a great platform for the qualifiers in October/November.”

Goalkeepers: P R Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera and Krishan Bahadur Pathak.

Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Varun Kumar, Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurinder Singh, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Jarmanpreet Singh and Dispan Tirkey.

Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma, Jaskaran Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Ashish Kumar Topno, Sayyad Niyaz Rahim and Raj Kumar Pal.

Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Gursahibjit Singh, Simranjeet Singh, SV Sunil, Gurjant Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay.