National Hockey Academy’s Vivek Sagar Prasad will lead India at the forthcoming Sultan of Johor Cup to be held in Malaysia from October 22, 2017. Like in the ongoing Dhaka Asia Cup, India will engage Japan in the opening match in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Pratap Lakra has been announced as the Vice Captain.

The team includes half a dozen players who won gold at the Dhaka Sub-Jr Asia Cup nearly a year ago. Dilpreet, Abhishek, goalie Pankaj Rajak and Rabindro, who are picked up now, graduate to Jr level from Sub-Jr category.

The 18 boys were among the 37 boys undergoing training at the National Camp at SAI, Lucknow since September 11, 2017. Junior Men’s Team Coach Jude Felix and his deputy BJ Cariappa has tried and tested all the players from this Core Grou before pinning down their ultimate 18.

Goalkeepers Pankaj Kumar Rajak and Senthamizh Arasu Shankar will be protected by Suman Beck, Pratap Lakra, Sukhjeet Singh, Varinder Singh, Mandeep Mor and Sanjay in defence. The midfield will comprise of Harmanjit Singh, Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Vishal Singh and Vishal Antil, while Shilanand Lakra, Raushan Kumar, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh and Maninder Singh will lead the forward line.

The Indian team will be participating in the tournament after a gap of 1 year as they finished second in the 5th Sultan of Johor Cup in 2015 where they lost to Great Britain in the Final. However, that podium finish had given the Indian team a lot of experience which helped them in winning the Uttar Pradesh Hockey Junior World Cup Men Lucknow 2016. Coach Jude Felix is expecting a same kind of exposure for his team which should help them in preparing for the future tournaments.

“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 to this young talent. I believe this will be a start to our long term objective of retaining the World Cup title at this level,” said Coach Jude Felix.

India are scheduled to play against five teams in the 7th Sultan of Johor Cup 2017 as they take on Japan, Malaysia, USA, Australia and Great Britain in a Round-Robin format.

Till departure, for the event, the tam will continue to train until October 17, 2017 in Lucknow itself.

The team: GOALKEEPERS: Pankaj Kumar Rajak
Senthamizh Arasu Shankar DEFENDERS: Suman Beck, Pratap Lakra (VC), Sukhjeet Singh, Varinder Singh, Mandeep Mor, Sanjay MIDFIELDERS: Harmanjit Singh, Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem, Vivek Sagar Prasad (C), Vishal Singh, Vishal Antil, FORWARDS: Shilanand Lakra, Raushan Kumar, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh & Maninder Singh