Four players from Odisha have been called up for the national hockey coaching camp that will begin at SAI Centre in Bengaluru from April 1 and go on till May 21 after which the team will leave for Europe where they will face off against Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Argentina in the remaining matches of the FIH Pro League.
While Odisha's Amit Rohidas and Nilam Sanjeep Xess - the two players who were part of the World Cup squad - have been expectedly included in the 39-member core group, Shilanand Lakra and Dipsan Tirkey are the other two players from the state to be called up for the camp.
What's interesting is that the players will have to report to interim coaches David John, BJ Kariappa and Shivendra Singh - the trio who had taken care of the squad during the Pro League mini-tournament held in Rourkela earlier this month.
Thus the question that arises is when would new coach Craig Fulton, who was expected to join the squad by the end of this month, take over the side. He was named the coach after Graham Reid had called it quits following India's disappointing show at the World Cup.
As for India's showing at the Pro League, they are currently at the top of the table with 19 points from 8 matches. During the mini tournament in Rourkela, they won both their matches against World Champions Germany while they beat Australia once and earned a bonus point in another game against them.
Core group:
Goalkeepers: Krishan Bahadur Pathak, PR Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera, Pawan Malik, Prashant Kumar
Defenders: Jarmanpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Gurinder Singh, Jugraj Singh, Mandeep Mor, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Sanjay, Yashdeep Siwach, Dipsan Tirkey, Manjeet
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Shamsher Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Rajkumar Pal, Sumit, Akashdeep Singh, Mohd. Raheel Mouseen, Maninder Singh
Forwards: Gurjant Singh, S Karthi, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Pawan Rajbhar
