After watching his boys go down in an unexpected manner to Malaysia at the 2018 Asian Games hockey semi-finals, heads coach Harendra Singh is determined to start afresh and make amends in the upcoming international tournaments.
India finished with a bronze at the Asiad after defeating arch-rivals Pakistan in the third-fourth place playoff match. But for Harendra the bronze medal was a mere consolation.
“The bronze medal was a consolation and there is no excuse for not making it to the final of the 18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang,” he was quot5e as saying by PTI.
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“There is no point looking back at the loss but now it’s critical for us to look ahead with a fresh, positive approach.”
The Hockey India federation on Wednesday named a 25-member core group for the national camp in Bhubaneswar, which is slated to start from September 16 and will start the preparation for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy and the World Cup.
“The idea of training in Bhubaneswar was to get acclimatised to the conditions. We are also looking at playing on the newly-laid turf at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium which will host the World Cup,” said the former India international, reported the news agency.
“This is a very important phase in the lead up to the season finale starting on November 28 and we intend to critically analyse our mistakes during the 18th Asian Games not just in our match against Malaysia but the other matches too.
“Asian Champions Trophy will be one tournament where we will be executing the changes made during this national camp,” added Harinder.
The full Core group list includes:
Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera and Krishan Pathak
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurinder Singh, Varun Kumar, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, Surender Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh and Pardeep Singh.
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, Sumit, Simranjit Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay and Vivek Sagar Prasad.
Forwards: SV Sunil, Akashdeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh and Sumit Kumar.
Among the other core players striker, Ramandeep Singh and defender Birendra Lakra will be undergoing rehabilitation and will join the team four days before their Asian Champions Trophy on October 18 in Oman.