Hockey India announces 32 players for men's national coaching camp

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Hockey India on Saturday named a 32-member core players list for the senior men's national coaching camp to be held in Bhubaneswar ahead of their clash against world champions Belgium, which is slated to take place on February 8 and 9. 

Dragflicker and defender Varun Kumar, who was out of action due to a nerve injury, has returned for the national coaching camp. 

The announcement of the core group for the national coaching camp came after India's impressive start to their maiden campaign at the FIH Hockey Pro League, where they clinched a brilliant 5-2 win and 3-3 draw against the Netherlands.

Experienced midfielder Chinglensana Singh, who made a return to the game after a year-long hiatus against the Netherlands, has also been included in the group along with young Striker Dilpreet Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Nilam Sanjeep Xess and Dipsan Tirkey.

Reflecting on the same, chief coach Graham Reid said that  one of the main focuses of the camp is to improve one-on-one tackling heading into the tie against the world champions. 

"The next two weeks, we will continue to stay focused on the process we have put in place. Improved fitness was one of our key strengths and it is important we keep up the optimal level. The players got a good week's break before returning to camp so I am expecting everyone to be fresh. As I had mentioned earlier, we need to improve one-on-one tackling, that will be one of the main focuses of our camp, and we look forward to the challenge against the World Champions," Hockey India quoted Reid as saying. 

The full list of players for the men's national coaching camp is as follows: 

P R Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Birendra Lakra, Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Simranjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, S V Sunil, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gursahibjit Singh, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Jaskaran Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Gurjant Singh, Sumit, Chinglensana Singh.