HI picks youngsters for Azlan Shah tournament
The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh (Malaysia) is the perfect platform to blood youngsters, ahead of more gruelling events. And, keeping that in mind Hockey India on Tuesday named four youngsters in the squad for the annual event, which kicks off on April 29.
The PR Sreejesh-led squad has four juniors who made an impact in the Junior World Cup at Lucknow last year and other international tournaments.
Defender Gurinder Singh, midfielders Sumit and Manpreet, who were part of the Junior World Cup-winning squad in December last year, are slated to make their debut, while 21-yearold goalkeeper from Mumbai, Suraj Karkera, who was a member of the junior squad that toured England in 2016 and competed in the EurAsia Cup in Russia and the Four-Nations Tournament last year, too finds his name in the squad.
The move to include so many juniors is in line with chief coach Roelant Oltmans’ thinking of looking at the future. The Dutch strategist had said before the national camp for the senior men’s core probables that his focus was to give juniors right exposure with a vision of building the team for the 2018 World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Games.
After three defeats, the Indian women’s football team notched up a consolation win as it beat Hong Kong 2-0 in their final group match of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers here.
Sasmita Malik (68th) and Ratanbala Devi (70th) scored as India ended their campaign with this lone win and finished the five-team Group B at fourth position with three points.
Wuxi (China): India squandered a raft of chances against Japan to lose 2-3 and bowed out in the quarterfinals of the Asian TT Championships here on Tuesday. After Soumyajit Ghosh had given his team a perfect start with a win over Yuya Oshima (7-11, 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-6), Achanta Sharath Kamal held a total of three match points in the fourth game against Koki Niwa before losing (11-1, 6-11, 8-11, 14-12, 12-10).
Sports Minister Vijay Goel said on Tuesday that he would try to meet Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes and sort out their difference in the wake of the ugly public spat that took place during the Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan.