Karkera in squad for Azlan Shah Cup
Adding momentum to chief coach Roelant Oltman’s initiative of grooming youngsters ahead of next year’s World Cup, Hockey India on Tuesday selected four untested players, including Mumbai goalkeeper Suraj Karkera, in the squad for the 29th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup which begins in Ipoh, Malaysia, from April 29.
The other three are defender Gurinder Singh, midfielders Sumit and Manpreet who will be part of the 18-member squad to be led by goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
While Gurinder, Sumit and Manpreet were part of the Junior World Cup winning squad, Karkera was part of the junior squad that toured England in 2016 and participated in the Eurasia Cup in Russia and the Four-nation event in Valencia last year.
Karkera, a 21-year-old who did his schooling with Children’s Academy, Malad, has been groomed by local coach Marzban Patel and was part of the UP Wizards team in the Hockey India League where he caught Olt be Sreejesh’s understudy at the Malaysian event where he is likely to get some match time.
Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, Malaysia and Japan are the other teams in fray in the sixteam competition.
The team also features Junior India players Harmanpreet Singh, Harjeet Singh and Mandeep Singh besides forward SV Sunil, who was recently crowned Player of the Year 2016 by the Asian Hockey Confederation.