The Indian hockey team next mission will head down under for a 4 Nations Hockey Tournament 2016 (India, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia) starting November 23 followed by a test series against World no. 1 Australia.
Drag flicker VR Raghunath will lead team India in PR Sreejesh’s absence who is left out due to knee injury. SV Sunil too will miss the tournament due to wrist injury. Both these players will remain in Sports Authority of India for rehabilitation. India recently won gold at ACT 2016 where they beat arch-rivals Pakistan in the final.
India Hockey Squad | 2016 Four Nations Tournament
Indian Hockey Squad : Goalkeepers – Abhinav Kumar Pandey, Akash Chikte; Defenders – Rupinder Pal Singh (Vice Captain), Pardeep Mor, VR Raghunath (Captain), Birendra Lakra, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar; Midfielders – Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, Manpreet Singh, Sardar Singh, S.K Uthappa; Forwards – Talwinder Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah, Affan Yousuf, Mohammad Amir Khan, Satbir Singh and Akashdeep Singh.
India’s stand-in captain Raghunath said –
The Asian Champions Trophy win has boosted the morale of the players and the team’s spirit is high. However, playing in Australia is a different challenge and we are up for it. We have beaten Australia in their home earlier in 2014 Test series and look to repeat similar performance this time too.
India’s hockey Oltmans said –
Both Sreejesh and Sunil will remain in SAI for rehabilitation. Also Sreejesh has willingly stepped up to spend some time with the junior team goalkeepers. He has already starting working with them and will assist Dave Staniforth who is joining us next week. This is great for the young boys and sharing his experience with them will be valuable ahead of the Junior World Cup.
India will play their first match of the tournament against hosts Australia on Nov. 23 at 2.30pm IST in Melbourne.
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