Sardara Singh, who was rested from India’s silver medal winning Champions Trophy campaign, was on Monday named captain of the 18-man squad for the 6 Nations Invitational hockey tournament to be held in Valencia from June 27.
Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh also made a return with Sardara, and so did Birender Lakra. Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and SV Sunil shared the captaincy of the Champions Trophy side in London where India won their maiden silver medal.
The squad features a strong defensive line up, with experienced campaigners VR Raghunath and Kothajit Singh joined by the returning Lakra and Rupinder Pal. Vikas Dahiya remains a back up to custodian Sreejesh.
The other teams in the tournament are Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland and hosts Spain.
The brilliant display of tactical hockey during Champions Trophy by the squad has positively elevated are Olympic medal-winning hopes. Three of the teams we face in Valencia are in our Pool at the Olympic Games, so that will help us assess and analyse our tactics better too.Sardara Singh
Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans said the squad is building up nicely for the Rio Olympics.
I am really impressed by the boys with their recent performances, especially at the Champions Trophy. They are implementing the learnings of the training well into action at the tournaments. I hope we keep up the spirit and continue to deliver performances like this.Sardara Singh
India take on Germany in the opening match on 27 June.
(With inputs from PTI)
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