16-member men's hockey squad for Olympics announced

BENGALURU: A 16-member men's hockey squad for Tokyo 2020 was announced on Friday, with Hockey India (HI) including as many as 10 Olympic debutants in the squad.

Continuing with their third stint, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and midfielder Manpreet Singh will bring in "critical experience" to the team, alongside other Olympic veterans, such as Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar and Mandeep Singh, said Hockey India in a statement.

After missing the 2016 Rio Olympics due to a knee injury, defender Birendra Lakra is back in the squad for Tokyo 2020. Also joining the team are, Amit Rohidas, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit and debutant forwards, Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay.

Chief coach Graham Reid said, "It has not been an easy process to make the final selection of 16 players as there is a lot of quality and ambition in this group of players. The performance levels of all the athletes are at an optimum level and more importantly they work well together. IANS

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