Indian players from the historic Olympic bronze medal-winning hockey squad will arrive in Bhubaneswar on Sunday (Nov 14) for the ongoing national coaching camp, which commenced on November 10 as part of their preparations for the Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka.
The 30-member core probable group will camp in Bhubaneswar till December 9.
Speaking about the coaching camp, chief coach Graham Reid said, “It will be good to have the senior men’s team train in Bhubaneswar as the weather here is almost similar to that of Dhaka. It will be great for the team to train in these conditions and get acclimatised.
“We will also be playing a few internal matches between the senior and the junior core probables that will surely help in our preparations for the Junior Men’s World Cup,” said Reid.
“The season next year will be busy for the senior squad with back-to-back major international tournaments and it will be great to kick off the year by defending the Asian Champions Trophy. We had a good camp in SAI, Bengaluru before the team went on a short break for Diwali and I believe this break would have done the players a lot of good to return to the camp feeling fresh mentally,” added Reid.
The group includes Manpreet Singh and PR Sreejesh who will be conferred with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award later on Saturday in New Delhi.
The group also includes Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Hardik Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Varun Kumar who were all conferred with the Arjuna award for their historic performance in Tokyo Olympics.
Vivek Sagar Prasad, who is also in New Delhi for the Arjuna award ceremony, will join the senior camp after his campaign with the India Colt’s team at the Junior World Cup, which concludes on December 5.
The Asian Champions Trophy will be held from December 14-22 and will see defending champions India, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and hosts Bangladesh in the fray.
Core Group:
Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Krishan B Pathak, Suraj Karkera.
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Varun Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Dipsan Tirkey, Mandeep Mor, Ashis Kumar Topno, Suman Beck.
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Hardik Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Raj Kumar Pal.
Forwards: Simranjeet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Akashdeep Singh, Gursahibjit Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Dilpreet Singh. (Vivek Sagar Prasad is currently attending the junior camp).