Tokyo Olympics 2020: India name 11 Olympic debutants in 16-member men's hockey squad for Games

Hockey India on Friday announced the 16-member men's hockey squad for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

India coach Graham Reid has named 11 Olympic debutants in the squad, which also features seasoned performers like PR Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh.

The experienced Olympic campaigners include goalkeeper Sreejesh, midfielder Manpreet, defenders Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh and Surender Kumar and forward Mandeep Singh.

Veteran defender Birendra Lakra , who missed the 2016 Rio Games due to a knee injury, has also been named in the side.

Speaking on the team selection, Chief Coach Graham Reid said, “It has not been an easy process to make the final selection of 16 players as there is a lot of quality and ambition in this group of players. The performance levels of all the athletes are at an optimum level and more importantly they work well together. They know what it means to represent the country at the Olympics. We are now focussed on training with the same intensity and our goal is to put forward our best performance as a collective unit in Tokyo.”

The India men's team are grouped in Pool A along with reigning Olympic Champions Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and hosts Japan. The tournament takes place from 23 July to 5 August.

The Sqaud:

Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh

Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Birendra Lakra

Midfielders: Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit

Forwards: Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh.