Ramandeep retained captain

BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 5: Punjab police mid-fielder Ramandeep Singh will lead the Indian team for the 10th Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournamen...

BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 5: Punjab police mid-fielder Ramandeep Singh will lead the Indian team for the 10th Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament to be held at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia from February 16 to 26.

Announcing the team here on Saturday, after a two-day selection trials, Indian Hockey Federation President KPS Gill said that the 18-member team will depart on February 13.

Gill also announced a 18-member junior team for the five-nation tournament in Egypt. Bimal Lakra of Indian Airlines will lead the team. Egypt, South Africa and Belarus are the other teams taking part in the Feb 13-19 tournament.

Regarding the team composition for the Azlan Shah tourney, Gill said the selection committee had chosen the best of the talent. Reacting to the statement issued by goalkeeper Ashish Ballal that he is fit and available for Olympics, Gill said, 8220;If he is fit, we will refer him to a test conducted by SAI. From there we will see. We have an open mind on all players.8221;

The Team

Seniors: Jude MenzesMumbai, RVS Prasad Services, Dilip Tirkey Indian Airlines, Lazarus Barla IA, Dinesh Nayak Tamil Nadu, Sukhbir Singh Gill Mumbai, Baljit Singh Saini Punjab amp; Sind Bank, Thirumal Valavan TN, Ramandeep Singh captain-Punjab, Baljit Singh Chandi PSB, Mukesh Kumar IA, Md Riaz IA, Dhanraj Pillai Mumbai, Baljit Singh Dhillon Punjab, Samid Dad IA, Senthil TN, Gagan Ajit Singh AI, Deepak Thakur AI. Coach: V Baskaran.

Juniors: Goalkeepers: Devesh Chauhan Air-India, Natarajan TN; Full-backs: Len Aiyappa Centre of Excellence, Bikramjit Singh PSB, Kanwalpreet Singh PSB; Half-backs: Bimal Lakra captain-IA, Prabodh Tirkey IA, Paramjeet Singh Services, Radhakrishnan TN, Viren Rasquinha Mumbai, Samsuz Zoha UP; Forwards: Inderjit Singh Chandigarh, Gurjanth Singh IA, Tajbir Singh, Sonur AI, Prabjoth Singh AI, Bipin Fernandez Centre of Excellence and Arjuna Halappa Centre of Excellence. Chief coach: CR Kumar.Assistant Coach: Harinder Singh Indian Airlines, Physical Trainer: Saju Joseph and Team Doctor: Dr Ramesh SAI, Bangalore.

INDIA8217;S SCHEDULE AT AZLAN SHAH TOURNAMENT
Feb 16: India vs Germany
Feb 18: India vs Pakistan
Feb 19: India vs Canada
Feb 21: India vs Korea
Feb 22: India vs Malaysia
Feb 24: India vs New Zealand.