Ramandeep retained captain

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, “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.”

The Team

Seniors: Jude Menzes(Mumbai), RVS Prasad (Services), Dilip Tirkey (Indian Airlines), Lazarus Barla (IA), Dinesh Nayak (Tamil Nadu), Sukhbir Singh Gill (Mumbai), Baljit Singh Saini (Punjab & 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).

INDIA’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.