Sardar Singh to lead 18-member team at the Hockey World League finals

The Indian Hockey team re presently in Bengaluru preparing for their upcoming events

An 18-member Indian squad was picked earlier today for the two-match Test series against Australia, starting on November 19th and the Hockey World League Finals, scheduled to be played between the 27th of November and 6th of December in Raipur. The team will be led by Sardar Singh and PR Sreejesh has been appointed his deputy.

The defense line will be in the able hands of Rupinder Pal Singh, who will have the likes of VR Raghunath, Kothajit Singh, Jasjit Singh Kular and Birendra Lakra. The skipper will guard the midfield and for company, will have Chinglensena Singh, Devinder Walmiki, Manpreet Singh, Dharamvir Singh and Danish Mujtaba.

The forward line will be led by SV Sunil and he will have Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Talwinder Singh. The only one who has missed is Nikkin Thimmaih, who has apparently not been picked since he has suffered a shoulder injury.

Head coach Roelant Oltmans expressed confidence about the squad picked for both the Australian series and the Hockey World League Finals.

“The team has been together in the camp for quite a while and they are showing tremendous progress. The test series with Australia will help us evaluate our strengths and weaknesses before going into the Hero Hockey World League Finals. We are excited and there is high degree of positivity within the boys and that gives all of us a lot of confidence. We are confident of playing some competitive hockey and hope to produce the best result in the league,” the Dutchman was quoted as saying by Hockey India.

India are grouped in with Netherlands, Germany and Argentina and will kick start their campaign against Argentina on November 27th.