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A day after announcing the Indian women's hockey side, a 16-member squad for the men's team was announced for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020.
The 16-member squad has eleven Olympic debutants and five veterans. It appears to be a youthful team with plenty of energy and intensity.
PR Sreejesh will be manning the post while experienced guys like Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, expert drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Singh, Surender Kumar and Mandeep Singh will guide the youngsters who are looking to make a mark on one of the world’s biggest sporting stages.
Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Indian Men's Hockey Team Opponents
The Indian men’s hockey team is grouped in Pool A alongside reigning Olympic champions Argentina. There are plenty of big-hitters in the group as well such as Australia, New Zealand, Spain and hosts Japan.
India’s chief coach Graham Reid said selecting the final-16 out of the probable’s wasn’t an easy task.
“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. They know what it means to represent the country at the Olympics."
He said the team is now focused on putting their best foot forward for the Tokyo Olympics.
"We are now focused on training with the same intensity and our goal is to put forward our best performance as a collective unit in Tokyo,” he said.
While the team has banked on experience in the middle of the park and in the backline, the strikers will be playing in their first ever Olympic games. Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay will have to overcome nerves very early in the tournament to take their team ahead.
Indian hockey team is well-prepared to grab a podium finish
The Indian team is on the back of a rigorous training regime at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Center in Bengaluru. The team has had a good first half of the Olympic year with successful tours to Europe and South America and a good showing in the FIH Pro League.
The Indian team was brilliant against Germany, Great Britain and Argentina and the experience of these tours will put them in good stead ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Also read: "Every match is like a final at the Olympics" - Olympian Mohammed Riaz
The Indian team is gunning to break a hockey Olympic medal drought. The last podium finish came at the 1980 Olympics. Since then, Indian hockey, in the Olympics, has been through many lows, including not qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics.
They will also want to put the 2016 Rio de Janeiro horror-show, where the team finished a dismal eighth, behind them in Tokyo this year. The team looks to be in good shape, unlearning the mistakes of 2016 and dishing out a different brand of hockey, evident from their recent tours and training sessions.
India men’s hockey squad
Goalkeepers: P R Sreejesh
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Birendra Lakra.
Midfielders: Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit
Forwards: Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh.
Also Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Indian Women's Hockey Team's Opponents
