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He already has 85 caps to his name, but Manpreet Singh is still young when it comes to age. On Wednesday, the talented midifielder was named the captain for India’s campaign at the junior hockey World Cup, which begins in New Delhi in a week’s time.
The 21-year-old also captained the side that won the 3rd Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia earlier this year.
Defender Amit Rohidas has been chosen the vice-captain for the tournament as India picked an 18-man squad for the premier tournament.
“Playing a World Cup at home will be a memorable occasion for the players. We have prepared well and are looking forward to taking on the world’s best,” said team coach Gregg Clarke.
“We will go step by step. The immediate target is to do well against Holland. I have learnt a lot of things playing with the senior team and will try to apply those things,” said Manpreet reacting to his appointment as captain.
There are 16 teams in total at the tournament, divided into four pools of four each. The top two teams from each pool will advance to the quarter-finals. India are placed in Pool C along with the Netherlands, South Korea and Canada and play their opening game on December 6 against the Dutch.
As far as the other teams are concerned, Germany, Pakistan, Belgium and Egypt are in Pool A while Pool B is ultra-competitive with the likes of Australia, Spain, Argentina and France, all bunched together. England, New Zealand, South Africa and Malaysia make up Pool D.
India have won gold at the event once, in 2001, while also bagging a silver in 1997. In 2005, they finished fourth, but could only manage ninth place in the previous edition in 2009.
India, who won a silver in 1997 World Cup and followed it up with their only gold medal in the event in 2001, failed to repeat the feat in subsequent events. In 2005 they were fourth and in 2009 they finished a lowly ninth.
Ten Sports will be broadcasting each of the matches live and tickets for the matches can be purchased from www.ticketgenie .in.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Sushant Tirkey, Harjot Singh;
Defenders: Gurjinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Sukhmanjit Singh, Pardeep Mor, Kothajit Singh;
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh (captain), Satbir Singh, Harjit Singh, Imran Khan, Prabhdeep Singh;
Forwards: Malak Singh, Mandeep Singh, Talwinder Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh;
Standbys: Jagdeep Dayal (goalkeeper), Lalit Upadhyay and Gurmail Singh (midfielder), Affan Yousuf (forward).
