Manpreet Singh to lead 18-member men's hockey team at Commonwealth Games 2022

Hockey India on Monday announced the 18-man men's squad for the prestigious Commonwealth Games scheduled to begin from July 29th in Birmingham. India grouped in pool B along with England, Canada, Wales and Ghana will begin their campaign on 31st July against Ghana. 

Manpreet Singh, who led the Indian team to a historic Bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year, will lead the team at CWG 2022. Dragflick specialist Harmanpreet Singh, the highest goal scorer of the FIH Hockey Pro League, has been named as the Vice Captain of the team.

Squad:

Defenders: Varun Kumar, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh and Jarmanpreet Singh.

The midfielder: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Shamsher Singh, Akashdeep Singh and Nilakanta Sharma.

Strikers: Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh and Abhishek. 

In their previous outing at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, India suffered disappointment finishing fourth, however, after an impressive outing in the FIH Pro League this year, the Indian team is poised to achieve success in Birmingham. 

Speaking about the team selection, Chief Coach Graham Reid said, "We have gone with a tried-and-tested team for the Commonwealth Games. These players have the experience of playing top teams in high pressure games in the FIH Pro League which was a good exposure for us ahead of the prestigious quadrennial event."

"After a brief break when we return home from Netherlands, we will resume camp in SAI, Bengaluru where we will analyze our performance against Belgium and Netherlands. While there are many takeaways from this outing in FIH Pro League, there surely are a few areas that we can improve upon ahead of the Commonwealth Games," asserted Reid.