The Hindu: Next few months will be crucial, Graham Reid

Indian hockey coach Reid has warned the players to not take their place in the team for granted

The next three to four months will be crucial for Indian hockey, says men’s team chief coach Graham Reid, insisting that a collective effort is needed to improve the performance ahead of the final round of Tokyo Olympic Qualifiers in November.

Reid made the statement after Hockey India on Sunday named a 34-core probable for the national coaching camp to begin on Monday at the Sports Authority of India campus in Bengaluru.

“We will review our previous performance at the FIH Men’s Series Final and discuss among ourselves the shortcomings and how we can collectively improve our performance in the lead up to the Olympic Qualification in November,” Reid said.

“The next three-four months will be crucial and everything we do will be aimed at raising the bar in all aspects of the game,” he added.

Full commitment

The coach warned all players not to take their place in the team for granted and expects 100 per cent commitment from them in the six-week long national camp.

“The support staff and I will be closely monitoring the progress of every player during the national camp. So in that sense each session is going to be important and we would expect nothing but 100 per cent from every player.

‘Healthy competition’

“The current pool of players assures of healthy competition and I am looking forward to the next six weeks,” Reid said..

All the probables will report to Reid for the camp that concludes on August 11.

After the camp, the Indian team will travel to Japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Test Event starting August 17. Besides India, hosts Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand are the other participating teams.

Core probables list: Goalkeepers: P.R. Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera, 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.

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

Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Gursahibjit Singh, Shamsher Singh, Armaan Qureshi, Sumit Kumar, Simranjeet Singh, S.V. Sunil, Gurjant Singh, Ramandeep Singh.