By IANS,
New Delhi : Hockey India’s (HI) new selection committee Wednesday selected its first team for the tour to Canada from Oct 2-5 without a designated captain.
Taking the cue from most international sides, the selectors have given chief coach Jose Brasa a free hand in rotating the captaincy.
“The idea of not naming a captain is not to allow the team management to pick the team it wants and nominate a captain on rotation,” HI secretary-general Aslam Khan told IANS.
Aslam said even on the European tour the capatincy was rotated even though Sandeep Singh was named captain.
The 11th-ranked India will play a seven-Test series against Canada, ranked 12th, at Victoria and Vancouver.
The tour is to prepare the Indian team for the Champions Challenge I tournament at Salta, Argentina, in December and later for the World Cup in February-March here.
Those dropped from the European tour side are injured goalkeeper Baljeet Singh, Prabodh Tirkey (mid-field), Ignace Tirkey (mid-field), V S Vinaya (mid-field), Tushar Khandekar (forward), Hari Prasad (forward), Ravi Pal Singh (forward).
P R Sreejesh, Dharamvir Singh (mid-field), Danish Mujtaba (mid-field), Sarwanjit Singh (forward), Roshan Minz (forward), Amir Khan (forward) are the new inclusions.
Ajitesh Roy who was in the mid-field on the European tour is among the reserve players this time.
Team:
Goalkeepers: Adrian D’Souza, PR Sreejesh
Defenders: Sandeep Singh, V Raghunath, Sardar Singh
Midfielders: Gurbaj Singh, Vikram Pillay, Dhananjay Mahadik, Dharamvir Singh, Birendar Lakra – Sr., Danish Mujtaba
Forwards: Bharat Chikara, Arjun Halappa, Tushar Khandker, Rajpal Singh, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Prabhjot Singh, SV Sunil, Shivendra Singh, Sarwanjit Singh, Roshan Minz Amir Khan.
Standbys: Mandip Antil, Birendra Lakra – Jr., Bharat Chetri, VS Vinaya, Ajitesh Roy
Fixture:
1st Test October 9th Victoria
2nd Test October 11th Victoria
3rd Test October 14th Vancouver
4th Test October 16th Vancouver
5th Test October 18th Vancouver
6th Test October 22nd Vancouver
7th Test October 24th Vancouver