India hockey team set to fine-tune skills for CWG at month-long camp

New Delhi: India hockey stalwarts such as goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, Krishan Pathak, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar and Amit Rohidas are among 31 players included in the Commonwealth Games camp, which began on Monday and will conclude on July 23 when the team leaves for Birmingham for the quadrennial showpiece.

After their impressive outing in Europe where the men’s team lived up to the billing against Belgium and the Netherlands in thrilling FIH Pro League double-headers, the team will have a nearly four-week long national camp at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru, where they will do the final fine-tuning for the mega event.

India, which is being led by Manpreet Singh, is scheduled to begin their campaign on July 31 against Ghana. Grouped in Pool B, India will also take on hosts England, Canada and Wales in the round-robin league matches.

Talking about the camp, chief coach Graham Reid said, “The players got a brief six-day break to go spend time with their families after the FIH Pro League matches in Europe. I believe this break has helped players return feeling fresh both mentally and physically.

“The next three weeks, we are going to focus on improving our performance in FIH Pro League where we had the opportunity to play against the best teams in the world. I have recognised a few areas that we can do better and be consistent at. This is something we will work on in the upcoming weeks here in Bengaluru. Commonwealth Games is a mega event with world ranking points at stake so definitely we will be vying for a good show in Birmingham,” added Reid.

Campers’ list: PR Sreejesh, Pawan, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Shamsher Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akashdeep Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Gursahibjit Singh, Mandeep Mor, Sanjay, Mohd Raheel Mouseen, Sumit, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Gurinder Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Ashis Kumar Topno, Krishan B Pathak, Shilanand Lakra.