Tournament to be played in Delhi from Dec 6
Hockey India on Wednesday announced the squad for the FIH Junior World Cup to be held at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here from December 6-15.
Mid-fielder Manpreet Singh will lead the side while defender and dragflicker Amit Rohidas will be his deputy. All the players of the side had played in the Asian Champions Trophy held in Japan and the team had finished fifth. Chief coach Gregg Clark reckons that all of his wards having played international hockey would give them advantage.
"All the players have some number of international caps to their credit and that will give them the confidence. In the ACT, we finished fifth and we played some really good hockey. All the other teams in that tournament — Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan had their full squad and we had a pack of juniors. But we were able to put our best against those experienced guys. By this, they got the idea of the standard and at which speed the game is played internationally," the coach said.
"Although this is a new tournament, we have a settled side. We have tried our composition and hopefully it works. It is a home tournament for us. So the players are happy that we will be playing such a crucial tournament at home. It will help us definitely," Clark added.
India are part of Pool C which have Holland, Korea and Canada. The South African also thinks that a good performance against a quality side like Holland in the very first game will give them a lot of confidence.
"Holland will be a tough game. They will be one of the favourites here. If we can put up a good show against them, it will be good. But, if we fail, we will think about the next. A loss in the first won't be the end of the world for us. But yeah, definitely a good first game show will be a great boost.
Affan Yousuf to miss 19-year old Affan Yousuf was the vice-captain of the team which won the Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia.
But, in the very subsequent tournament, the Bhopal player was relegated to standbye for the ACT and in the next — the Junior WC, he was again in the standbye.
During the Hockey India league auction, the striker got a decent price of $35,000 (approximately `21,84000) from Jaypee Punjab Warriors and he was positive about his place.
Yousuf failed to fathom the reason behind his exclusion. "I don't know. Kismat ki bhi baat hoti hai. As other players are players with international experience, I think I was dropped," he said, before being positive. "I will keep trying and try to improve. I will try to break into the senior team."
Indian team
Goalkeepers: Sushant Tirkey, Harjot Singh.
Defenders: Gurjinder Singh, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar, Sukhmanjit Singh, Pardeep Mor, Amit Rohidas.
Midfielders: Harjeet Singh, Satbir Singh, Prabhdeep Singh, Imran Khan.
Forwards: Manpreet Singh (captain), Mandeep Singh, Malak Singh, Talwinder Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh.
Standbys: Jagdeep Dayal (goalkeeper), Gagandeep Singh (midfielder), lalit Upadhyay (defender), Jarmanpreet Singh (defender), Affan Yousuf (forward), Amon Mirash Tirkey (forward) and Gurmail Singh.