21st Sultan Azlan Shah Cup: Indian Men Hockey Team reached Malaysia

The Indian Men Hockey team Monday morning reached to Malaysia to participate in the 21st Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Hockey Tournament scheduled to be played from 24 May to 3 June 2012 at Ipoh, Malaysia.

The 18-member squad is led by goalkeeper Bharat Chetri. Midfielder Sardar Singh has been selected as Vice- Captain of the team.

The seven-nation tournament will feature Argentina, Great Britain, India, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand and Pakistan. Apart from hosts Malaysia, all other teams shall play at the London Olympic Games in July.

India will open their campaign against New Zealand on 24th May, and follow with matches against Korea, Great Britain, Malaysia, Argentina and Pakistan.

The tournament will be played on blue artificial pitch with yellow balls on round robin league format, culminating in positional playoffs on the last day.

India has won the title of Azlan Shah Cup Hockey Tournament five times earlier - 1985, 1991, 1995, 2009 and 2010.

Forward Yuvraj Singh Walmiki is part of this team as he has replaced Gurvinder Singh Chandi who has suffered from hamstring injury during the London Olympic Test Event early this month.

Team Squad-

Goalkeepers
Bharat Chetri (Captain), Sreejesh PR

Defenders
Sandeep Singh, V R Raghunath, Rupinderpal Singh

Midfielders
Birendra Lakra, Sardar Singh (Vice- Captain), Manpreet Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam

Forwards
S V Sunil, Dharamvir Singh, Sarvanjit Singh, Yuvraj Walmiki, Shivendra Singh, Danish Mujtaba, S.K Uthappa, and Tushar Khandker.