New Delhi: Sardar Singh will return as skipper of Indian hockey team and take over the mantle from PR Sreejesh for the 6 Nations Invitational Tournament to be held in Valencia Spain, between June 27-July 3, 2016.
Hockey India announced the squad for the tournament, which will also feature, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland and hosts Spain.
The squad features a strong defensive line up, with experienced campaigners VR Raghunath, Rupinder Pal Singh and Kothajit Singh being joined by the returning Birender Lakra. Harmanpreet Singh and Surender Kumar provide the youth to the backline. PR Sreejesh and Vikas Dahiya are the goalkeepers included in the squad.
“After winning our first medal at the prestigious Champions Trophy tournament over the weekend, and the first medal since the Bronze in 1982 as well as the best finish in any major Champions Trophy tournament so far, we are confident to deliver our best at the 6 Nations Tournament as well. All these matches are stepping stones towards the ultimate goal – Rio Olympics 2016. The brilliant display of tactical hockey during FIH Champions Trophy by the squad has positively elevated are Olympic medal-winning hopes. Three of the teams we face in Valencia are in our Pool at the Olympic Games, so that will help us assess and analyse our tactics better too,” said Sardar Singh.
Chief coach Roelant Oltmans said, “I am really impressed by the boys with their recent performances, especially at the Champions Trophy Silver winning finale. They are implementing the learnings of the training well into action at the tournaments. I hope we keep up the spirit and continue to deliver performances like this. The key to the tournament will be to use it almost as a host of friendlies, before the Games. We will try to maximise on our squad rotations, tactical experiments and analyse our opponents there. Most teams, will come with what resembles their full strength squad and so it will give us a good indication of our strengths and weaknesses, prior to Rio.”
In the opening match on 27th June, India take on Germany.
Goalkeepers
PR Sreejesh (VC)
Vikas Dahiya
Defenders
Rupinderpal Singh
VR Raghunath
Kothajit Singh
Surender Kumar
Harmanpreet Singh
Birendra Lakra
Midfielders
Danish Mujtaba
Chinglensana Singh
Manpreet Singh
Sardar Singh (C)
SK Uthappa
Devindar Sunil Walmiki
Harjeet Singh
Forwards
Talwinder Singh
SV Sunil
Akashdeep Singh
Ramandeep Singh
Nikkin Thimmaiah
