Hockey: Junior team for 8-nation tournament
An 18-member Indian Junior Hockey team has been named to play in an international tournament next month. Hockey India on Tuesday announced that Mandeep Mor will lead the team while Suman Beck will be his deputy. The team will play in the eight-nation under-21 tournament in Spain from June 10. The participating teams are the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, hosts Spain and India.
The goalkeepers are Prashant Kumar Chauhan and Pawan while deep defence will be manned by Mandeep Mor, Pratap Lakra, Sanjay, Akashdeep Singh Junior, Suman Beck and Parampreet Singh.
Midfielders are Yashdeep Siwach, Vishnu Kant Singh, Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem, Maninder Singh and Vishal Antil. The forwardline will feature Amandeep Singh, Rahul Kumar Rajbhar, Shivam Anand, Sudeep Chirmako and Prabhjot Singh.
Speaking about the team selection, David John, Director, High Performance said, "Some of the players have had good international exposure and I am hopeful that the 8-nation U-21 tournament will further their experience of playing quality teams at high intensity. This will be quite a challenging tournament given the teams participating in it and I believe the tournament will give us an understanding of where we stand in terms of our preparations for the Junior World Cup in 2021."
