Harmanpreet to lead India at World Cup

Bengaluru: Penalty corner ace Harmanpreet replaced midfielder Manpreet Singh as skipper as India put together a largely tried and tested team for the FIH World Cup in Rourkela and Bhubaneswar from January 13 next year.
Fellow defender Amit Rohidas will be Harmanpreet’s deputy. In the midfield, Akashdeep Singh made a comeback into the squad along with Vivek Sagar Prasad while Gurjant Singh failed to make the cut.Karnataka’s Mohammed Raheel, who made his debut at the FIH Pro League earlier this year, did not find favour among the selectors. The 18-member squad was picked from a pool of 33 players after a two-day selection trials at the SAI, South Centre, here earlier this week. The hosts are placed in pool D alongside England, Spain and Wales. They begin their campaign against Spain on January 13 in Rourkela. On the team, chief coach Graham Reid said, “A home World Cup puts extra importance and extra pressure on this event like no other. Every country chooses the best team they believe is available to them at the time and tries to provide their team with the best preparation they can. We have also tried to do both with the selection of our Indian World Cup team, choosing a mixture of experienced and younger exciting players who can provide something special." Rajkumar Pal and Jugraj Singh were named as alternate players.
The squad: Goalkeepers: Krishan Pathak and Sreejesh PR Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh (Captain), Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas (vice-captain), Nilam Sanjeep Xess Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akashdeep Singh. Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek and Sukhjeet Singh. Alternate players: Rajkumar Pal and Jugraj Singh.