PHF announces national squad for 3rd Junior Asia Cup U-18 Boys Hockey Tournament: Hockey News
The Chief Selector of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), Hanif Khan announced a squad comprising of 20 players yesterday, on May 26 that will play the third edition of the Junior Asia Cup Under-18 Hockey Tournament for boys in Singapore from June
17-26.
The announcement was made at the Naseer Bunda Stadium in Islamabad during a press conference with Mazhar Abbas, the goal-keeper, named as the team captain followed by the deputy, Ali Shan.
This duo has been picked out of the players who attended a two-day trial at the Islamabad hockey stadium, held on May 25 and 26.
For the event, Rana Mujahid, a former Olympian, has been selected as the head coach of the junior national squad whereas he will be assisted by Anjum Saeed, Ahmad Alam, Danish Kaleem and Asad Abbas.
During the press conference, one of PHF’s selection committee officials stated that a preparatory camp shall be set for the chosen team players in Karachi at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium, on June 1 after which the team will take off for Singapore.
At the occasion, Mujahid commented that he was optimistic about the performance of the team in Singapore due to the extreme efforts put in to get them trained for the Cup and a lot is expected from them.
He further added, "But I will not make any big claim or any prior commitment about where the team will finish."
The tournament comprises of ten international teams that have been divided into two pools and Pakistan is included in Pool A, accompanied by the host Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and Brunei. On the other hand, Pool B comprises of Malaysia,
Sri Lanka, China, South Korea and Indonesia.
Apart from the above mentioned team players, Pakistan’s U-18 team further includes Waseem Abbas, Sultan Amir, Mohammad Sohaib, Mohammad Bilal Khan, Ali Hassan Mansoor, Mohammad Usman Tanveer, Zohaib Ashraf, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Asad Bashir, Mohammad
Bilal Qadir, Khurram Shahzad, Hafiz Rizwan Ali, Mohammad Arslan Qadir, Mohammad Suleman, Mohammad Sufian (goal-keeper) and Mohammad Umair.
Pakistan will play its first match on June 19 against Brunei, at the Singapore tournament.
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