Sardar overlooked for exposure tour to European tour
NEWDELHI: Half-back Sardar Singh has been dropped from the squad for the European hockey tour. Besides Sardar Singh, Hockey India( HI) also excluded forwards SV Sunil and Akashdeep Singh. The three were members of the team that finished sixth in the Hockey World League Semifinal in London.
On Friday, HI announced that Man p re et Singh will lead the 18-member team for the series of matches with Belgium and Netherlands. The national team currently training at Bangalore will leave for the tour on August 5 and play its opening match with Belgium on August 9 followed by the second game on August 10. India will play their next two matches against Netherlands on August 13 and 14. The final match, against Austria, will also be played in the Netherlands, on August 16. For the August 9-16 European tour, chief coach Roelant Oltmans has given the opportunity to some youngsters. Squad: Goalkeepers: Akash Anil Chikte, Suraj Karkera; Defenders: Dipsan Tirkey, Kothajit Singh, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Varun Kumar; Midfielders: SK Uthappa, Harjeet Singh, Manpreet Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma; Forwards: Mandeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh, Armaan Qureshi.