Hockey: Sreejesh makes comeback, Jr stars find place in New Zealand tour

Hockey India today named the 20-member Indian Men’s Hockey Team who will take part in the 2018 Four Nations Invitational Tournament in New Zealand starting January 17. India will compete with Belgium, Japan and hosts New Zealand at Tauranga and Hamilton.

The team will be led by 25-year-old midfielder Manpreet Singh while Chinglensana Singh Kangujam will shoulder the responsibility of Vice Captain.

Making a strong comeback after nearly eight months of injury layoff is goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who missed some of the key tournaments in 2017 due to knee injury. Sreejesh will be joined by young goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak a Member of the 2016 Junior World Cup winning team and who was also part of the India ‘A’ team that participated at the Australian Hockey League in September 2017.

New inclusions in the team are forward Dilpreet Singh and midfielder Vivek Sagar Prasad. The duo was rewarded for their promising performance at the 7th Sultan of Johor Cup last year where the team returned home with the Bronze medal. While Vivek had led the team with great determination and played an instrumental role in the midfield, Dilpreet was India’s goal-getter with nine goals in six matches to his credit.

“The team continues to remain a good mix of young and experienced players. They will get to show their abilities against top quality teams. This is an important year for us with major tournaments in the pipeline and one of our focus areas is to perform consistently especially against higher ranked teams,” expressed Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne.