39-member core group named for men's hockey team camp before Spain tour

A 39-member core group for the men's national coaching camp at SAI Bengaluru was named by Hockey India on Tuesday,

The Asian Games Champions will prepare for their upcoming assignment in Spain where they will take on Germany, France, Belgium, and the hosts Spain in a 5 Nation Tournament starting 15th December 2023 in Valencia.

The core group of the National Coaching Camp includes goalkeepers Krishan Bahadur Pathak, PR Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera, Pawan Malik, and Prashant Kumar Chauhan. Harmanpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Gurinder Singh, Jugraj Singh, Mandeep Mor, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Sanjay, Yashdeep Siwach, Dipsan Tirkey, and Manjeet has been named as defenders.

The midfielders called up to the camp include Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Shamsher Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Rajkumar Pal, Sumit, Akashdeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mohd. Raheel Mouseen and Maninder Singh.

The list of forwards includes S. Karthi, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Shilanand Lakra, and Pawan Rajbhar.

Talking about the upcoming camp, Indian Men’s Hockey Team Chief Coach Craig Fulton said, “It was a long break from the National Camp after a successful outing in the Hangzhou Asian Games. Most of the players from the team played the National Championship in Chennai, and I too got a chance to watch some of the young and upcoming players closely. We will now assemble in SAI, Bengaluru with a fresh perspective to our preparations for the Paris Olympics.”

“As I have maintained, it is a process and we will revisit our Asian Games campaign and understand how we can do better as a team and work towards that,” Fulton added.

Meanwhile, Indian Men’s Hockey Team Captain Harmanpreet Singh said, “The past few weeks were great, as we got to spend quality time with family and also had a great outing playing for our home state at the National Championship in Chennai. Now, we return to the camp yearning to be a better team."

List of players in India’s 39-member core-probable group:

Goalkeepers: Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Sreejesh Parattu Raveendran, Suraj Karkera, Pawan, Prashant Kumar Chauhan.

Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Gurinder Singh, Jugraj Singh, Mandeep Mor, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Sanjay, Yashdeep Siwach, Dipsan Tirkey, Manjeet.

Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Shamsher Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Rajkumar Pal, Sumit, Akashdeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mohd. Raheel Mouseen, Maninder Singh.

Forwards: S. Karthi, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Pawan Rajbhar.