Hindustan Times: Indian junior men’s hockey probables set the ball rolling ahead of Johor Cup

Hockey India’s high-performance director, David John and junior men’s team coach Jude Felix will select the 18-member squad for the Malaysia tournament during the course of the camp.

It turned out to be a pleasant evening for hockey fans in the state capital as they got to see the country’s top juniors training at the Padma Shri Mohd Shahid Stadium in Lucknow on Friday.

The 36-day camp for 37 probables, preparing for the 7th Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia (Oct 22-29), had commenced on Monday, but what caught the attention of onlookers on Friday was the floodlights that were switched on for the first time for the training session.

The floodlit stadium brought back memories of the team’s maiden junior Hockey World Cup title triumph here last year.

It is learnt that Hockey India’s high-performance director, David John and junior men’s team coach Jude Felix will select the 18-member squad for the Malaysia tournament during the course of the camp.

“We chose this training venue for a change as we will also be playing the All India KD Singh ‘Babu’ Tournament at this venue soon,” a team official told HT.

He said that the camp was essentially for improving speed, agility, skills and understanding of the game keeping in mind the 2020 Junior World Cup.

“We have worked very hard to identify the core group in the past few months to carry on our development process, which has given us a strong pool of players who can represent the country at the biggest stage,” coach Jude Felix said.

“We believe that these players have the attributes to represent India in international tournaments. Our main focus right now is to train them and select the best to play in Malaysia next month,” high-performance director, David John.

PROBABLES

Goalkeepers: Pankaj Kumar Rajak, Tanuj Gulia, Prashant Kumar Chauhan, AS Sentamizh Arasu; Defenders: Suman Beck, Harmanjit Singh, Mandeep Mor, Mohd Faraz, Prince, Pratap Lakra; Midfielders: Varinder Singh, Sunny Malik, Vishal Antil, Yashdeep Siwach, Vishal Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akshay Avasthi, Sukhjeet Singh, Rabichandra Singh, Moirangthem, Dinachandra Singh Moirangthem; Forwards: Shilanand Lakra, Jai Prakash Patel, Dilpreet Singh, Mohd Saif Khan, Raushan Kumar, Abhishek, Shivam Anand, Rahul Kumar Rajbhar, Mohd Alishan, Sanjay, Maninder Singh, Rahul, Anand Kumar Bara, Rahul Shinde, Venkatesh Kenche, Kishore Arya and Iktidar Ishrat.