The Indian Junior Men’s Hockey team is all set to begin their tour of Europe on Monday as part of their preparation for the upcoming international season.

With matches scheduled on 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 28th and 29th May, the players will look to make the best use of the opportunity to hone their skills.

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The team, led by Rohit, with Shardanand Tiwari named as Vice-Captain, will be playing matches in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands as part of Hockey India’s initiative to help the team gain exposure and build on experience.

The goalkeeping department will be commanded by Prince Deep Singh and Bikramjit Singh while Shardanand Tiwari, Yogember Rawat, Anmol Ekka, Rohit, Manoj Yadav and Talem Priyo Barta have been picked as the defenders.

Ankit Pal, Roshan Kujur, Bipin Billavara Ravi, Mukesh Toppo, Manmeet Singh and Vachan H A make up the midfield.

The forwards named in the squad are Sourabh Anand Kushwaha, Arshdeep Singh, Gurjot Singh, Mohd. Konain Dad, Dilraj Singh and Gursewak Singh.

The team will play their first match on 20th May against Belgium in Antwerp, Belgium before playing the same opponents in Breda, Netherlands on 22nd May.

They will then play the Netherlands’ Club team Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push in Breda on 23rd May followed by a game against Germany on 28th May in Germany.

The Indian Colts will then return to Breda to play Germany once again on 29th May in their final match of the tour.

After a preparatory camp in Bengaluru where the players worked together on the various aspects of the game, they will look to execute their strategies come match day. The tour is of immense significance to the squad before the upcoming season.

They will look at it as a chance to test themselves against top teams from other parts of the world and gain an understanding of what works for the team and what can be added to the repertoire.

Captain Rohit, ahead of the tour, said, “Our main goal would be to implement our strategies as a team and see how we can work on them against good opponents.

We will also look at it as an opportunity for each of us to identify how we can develop our game. It is a tremendous opportunity for all of us to gain some vital exposure heading into the season.”

“All of us here have trained together for a while now. We have a really good understanding of each one’s game and know what we need to do to get the best out of each other.

We will use this tour to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses and see what would work best going forward,” added Vice-Captain Shardanand Tiwari,.