After their impressive outing in Europe where the Indian men's team lived up to the billing against Belgium and the Netherlands in thrilling FIH Hockey Pro League double-headers, the team is back in the grind at the National Camp which began on Monday at SAI Centre, Bengaluru.
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Hockey India named 31 players for the camp which will conclude on July 23 ahead of the team's departure for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
India which will be 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.
For the camp, Hockey India named PR Sreejesh, Krishan B Pathak, Pawan, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, and Jarmanpreet Singh.
Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Shamsher Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Akashdeep Singh, Nilakanta Sharma have been called-up along with 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, Ashis Kumar Topno and Shilanand Lakra.
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Talking about the camp, chief coach Graham Reid said in a statement, "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 recognized 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 an optimistic Reid.
