India colts begin training for junior Asia Cup hockey

BENGALURU: With their focus on the men's junior Asia Cup, India colts began training on Saturday following a week-long quarantine.

The 37-member junior men's core group reported to SAI, Bengaluru on February 6 and underwent mandatory quarantine followed by an RTPCR swab test before resuming training from Saturday.

"The focus of this camp will be to improve our fitness, speed and create some match-scenarios to be best prepared for the Asia Cup," expressed coach BJ Kariappa.

"Since the senior men's core group is also housed in the same campus, we want to make the most of their presence here and will plan a few sessions where the junior players can get some match-practice against them," he added.

The junior men's core probable list includes goalkeepers Pawan, Prasant Kumar Chauhan, and Sahil Kumar Nayak while the defenders called up are Sanjay, Cyril Lugun, Nabin Kujur, Sunil Jojo, Dinachandra Singh Moirangthem, Niraj Kumar Waribam, Shardanand Tiwari, and Abhishek Lakra.

The midfielders selected for the national camp include Gregory Xess, Sukhman Singh, Maninder Singh, Gopi Kumar Sonkar, Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem, Akashdeep Singh, Yashdeep Siwach, Ankit Pal, Vishnu Kant Singh, Mareeswaran Sakthivel, Surya NM, Darshan Vibhav Gawker, and Gurmukh Singh.

Among forwards Amandeep, Rahul Kumar Rajbhar, Boby Singh Dhami, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Anand, Sudeep Chirmako, Mohd Sadiq, Uttam Singh, S Karthi, Manjeet, Diljeet Singh, Araijeet Singh Hundal, and Prabhjot Singh have been called up for the camp.

"With the mandatory quarantine period completed, we have begun training from today onwards and the players are all upbeat to make the most of this national coaching camp," Kariappa said. IANS

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