Three Indians in Sultan Azlan Shah XI
IPOH (Malaysia): Midfield trio of Arjun Halappa, Sardar Singh and Gurbaj Singh were included in the Azlan Shah XI which was named after India shared the winners’ trophy with Korea on Sunday.
Halappa led the Indian charge creditably in the midfield during the tournament and found good support from the other colleagues, including Gurbaj.
It is due to the consistent performance by the midfielders that the defending champions suffered only one loss — to Malaysia — en route to the final of the seven-country tournament.
However, they had to share the trophy with the Koreans when the summit clash was abandoned after just six minutes due to heavy rains.
Sardar was also impressive with the stick and helped defending the Indian citadel a number of time.
Besides the three Indians, the Azlan Shah XI had three players from Malaysia, including goalkeeper Kumar Subramanian, another three from Korea and one each from Australia and Pakistan.
Azlan Shah XI: Kumar Subramanian, Baljit Singh, TA Tajudin (all Malaysians), Sardar Singh, Arjun Halappa, Gurbaj Singh (all Indians), Lee Nam Yeong, Hong Eun Seong, You Hyo Sik (all Koreans), Md Imran (Pakistan) and Kieran Govers (Australia).