Yuvraj, Nitin and Uthappa replaced with new faces in the Doha squad
Three players from the Melbourne Champions Trophy – Yuvraj Walmiki, Nitin Thimmaiah and SK Utthappa – have been dropped from the Doha Asian Champions Trophy Squad. Chinglensana Singh, Pradhan Somanna and MB Aiyappa, who were in the standbye list, will now play in their place.
This is the first news from Doha, where India takes on China tomorrow in its quest to retain the title that it won last year.
Expectedly, national coach Michael Nobbs is particular to come over Pakistan here, whom they defeated through an ardous tie-breaker duel last year in the final.
“We are here to seek revenge from Pakistan,” is how Indian Hockey Coach MichealNobbs summarized the expectations from his very young lads at the Asian Champions Trophy at Doha, Qatar, commencing tomorrow.
Defending champions, India,open their campaign against China in the 2nd match of the day, tomorrow, Thursday, scheduled to begin at 1930hrs (IST).
As per the coach, Pakistan is much more experienced side and they have as many as three very senior players in the team whereas the senior most for India is Sardara Singh with a 150-match experience. That, as per him, is the reason why Pakistan team has had an upper hand against India in the recent games.
“First game is always the tuft-est of all the games, more so because we don’t know anything about the Chinese team. It’s been long we have played a game against them,” says the coach, without any hesitation.
With an attempt to build a base of strong young players, coach Nobbs confirms that Indian team has given a break to a few Champion Trophy players – Yuvraj Walmiki, SK Uthappa and Nithin Thimmaiah. Replacing them will be Chinglensana Singh, Pradhan Sommanna and the debutant MB Aiyappa.
A visibly shy Aiyappa, was short of words when asked about his reaction on his maiden appearance for the team.
With this approach, Nobbs believes that we can have a pool of players and the best of the lot can take up the top-notch tournaments. Rest will chance to improve upon the lower-ranked tournaments.
Nobbs also talks about the ways that they have implemented that have yielded results at the Champions Trophy. He reveals, “To be the best, you need to copy the best – the Germans. We are in the process of honing a few defending skills from them.”
After sustaining a number of injuries, the Indian team line-up boasts of a fully-fit team. According to the Australian, Manpreet, Lakra and Rupinderpal are the players to watch out for.
In tomorrow’s game, PR Sreejeshwill make the final-cut. Only later in the tournamanet, PT Rao will be tried out.
The coach believes that all ‘senior’ players who haven’t made it to the final-18, can still make it to the Indian team, some day. They need to re-invent themselves and prove to the world that they are capable of giving world class players a run for their money in the upcoming Hockey India League.
However, whether the HIL auctions will have a complacency effect on the Indian players’ mind or not, coach is crystal clear in his expectation, “I hope it doesn’t.”
The synthetic turf at the Al Rayyan Sports Club, the venue for the ACT, hasn’t been changed from 2006 Doha Asian Games. The pitch is a fairly flat one and the coach wasn’t greatly impressed but then he rationalized mentioning that it’s going to the same for all teams.
Indian coach wished to remind the Indian fans that it’s a long and a tuft road ahead and each one in the team need their support. The successful change is surely not coming over-night.