FIH Olympic Qualifiers | Manpreet Singh to lead India men’s team against Russia
Hockey India
Hockey India has named the 18-member Indian men’s team for the upcoming FIH Olympic Qualifier games against Russia which will be held on November 1 and 2 at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar. Manpreet Singh will continue to lead the Graham Reid-coached side with SV Sunil as his deputy.
The Indian Men's Team comprises of Goalkeepers PR Sreejesh and Krishan Bahadur Pathak, while the outfield players named in the side include experienced drag-flicker Rupinderpal Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Surender Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Captain Manpreet Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Simranjeet Singh along with experienced attacking players in Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Vice-Captain SV Sunil, Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, and Ramandeep Singh.
The winners of the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Odisha will qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The winners will be determined as follows: teams will be ranked according to the number of points each has accumulated in both matches (for each match, 3 points are awarded to the winner, 1 point to each team in the event of a draw and 0 point to the loser).
If there is equality among the two teams, then the teams will be ranked according to their respective goal difference. If the equality remains, a shoot-out competition will be played to establish the winner. Therefore, the objective of both the Indian Men's and Indian Women's Hockey Teams will be to secure direct qualification for the Tokyo 2020 hockey tournaments - which will be staged in Japan’s capital city from 25 July to 7 August next year and involve 12 Men’s and 12 Women’s teams.
Indian Men's Hockey Team:
PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Surender Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh (Captain), Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, SV Sunil (Vice-Captain), Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Simranjeet Singh
