Asian Champions Trophy | Manpreet Singh to lead Team India, PR Sreejesh omitted from squad
A file picture of PR Sreejesh.
|(Twitter)
Hockey India on Friday announced a 20-member squad for the men's Asian Champions Trophy 2021, to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from December 14 to 22. Manpreet Singh will be the in-charge of the team once again, while Harmanpreet Singh will be his deputy for the prestigious tournament.
While the core of the team remains the same, one major omission will be goalkeeper PR Sreejesh. The veteran keeper will be replaced by Krishan Pathak, who was a part of the Tokyo Olympics too, but did not get to play a game.Â
“While selecting this team we now must have our eyes on the future. It takes a deep and strong squad to build sustained success so players have to be given opportunities to perform,” India men’s hockey chief coach Graham Reid said. “We have picked a team that has a good mix of experience and younger guys, who will have their chance to show what they can do.
“The Asian Champions Trophy is a world-class event that will provide all teams a fantastic opportunity to start the next Olympiad with the much-needed competition. We are looking forward to the challenge,” Reid added.
Back in 2018, India and Pakistan were declared joint winners, after the final was called off due to heavy rains. The other teams part of the tournament are South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, and hosts Bangladesh. Meanwhile, this edition of the Asian Champions Trophy was supposed to be held in November last year, but was postponed due to Covid-19.Â
Indian squad
Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Harmanpreet Singh (vice-captain), Gurinder Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Varun Kumar, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Mandeep Mor, Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh (captain), Jaskaran Singh, Sumit, Rajkumar Pal, Akashdeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Dilpreet Singh, Gursahibjit Singh, Shilanand Lakra.
