Commonwealth Games 2022: Manpreet Singh to lead full-strength men's Hockey squad

Hockey India named a full-strength 18-member squad with Manpreet Singh returning as the captain and Harmanpreet Singh as his deputy for the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2022.

Manpreet Singh who led India to the historic bronze medal win at the Tokyo Olympics last year will take over the captaincy from Amit Rohidas who led the team during the FIH Pro League tour of Belgium and the Netherlands.

While experienced goalkeepers PR Sreejesh and Krishan B Pathak return to the squad after a brief break due to injury, Suraj Karkera, Shailanand Lakra and Sukhjeet Singh who played in the FIH Pro League are not a part of the squad.

Earlier the Indian Hockey body had decided to send a second-string team to CWG because of the short interval between the CWG and Asian Games. However, after China postponed the Hangzhou Asian Games to next year due to Covid-19, chief coach Grahm Reid said that they will now send a 'tried & tested' team to Birmingham.

The 2-time former silver medallists who finished 4th in the 2018 Gold Coast CWG have been grouped in Pool B alongside England, Canada, Wales, and Ghana for CWG that begin on 28th July.

Team:

GOALKEEPERS: PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak

DEFENDERS: Varun Kumar, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh (VC), Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh.

MIDFIELDERS: Manpreet Singh (C), Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Shamsher Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Nilakanta Sharma

FORWARDS: Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek.

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