PHF considers Mohammad Imran as a strong contender for captaincy – Hockey Update
Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is currently considering Muhammad Imran as a strong contender to fill up the vacancy left empty by Zeeshan Ashraf, who led the team in winning the 2010 Asian Games.
Imran, being the vice captain of Pakistan Men’s hockey team became an automatic option for both the PHF selection committee and team management.
Since Ashraf refused to be the part of the 20th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, the officials are mulling over selecting the seasoned senior to reserve this seat.
Ashraf had announced stepping back from participating in the Malaysian tournament for allowing the youngsters to avail their chance for an international debut.
Imran undoubtedly qualifies for the seat because he had assisted Ashraf in clinching gold at the 2010 Asian Games last November.
PHF praised the 32-year-old full-back who also led the Pakistan’s junior team and commented that Imran has a decent amount of experience in international hockey and is one of the fittest senior players Pakistan has, making him the deserving candidate for
captaincy.
However, the official added that few other experienced players like former captains Shakeel Abbasi and Rehan Butt were also in the nominee list. Surprisingly, Pakistan’s drag-flick expert Sohail Abbas is not among the selection choices.
Meanwhile, the head selector former Olympian Hanif Khan along with his selection team flew to Islamabad on April 7 to attend the training camp being conducted at the Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium.
They reached there to observe the players’ performance at the Azlan Cup preparatory camp so as to list down the deserving candidates for the final 18 to go to Malaysia for the upcoming event in May. They will attend the rest of the camp until the finalisation
of the first phase.
Khan commented that they will keep reviewing the performance of players at the camp until April 10 so as to select the best performers out of the total attendants. Any player with an ideal fitness level and good performance will be preferred, irrespective
of being a junior or a senior player.
The chief selector stated that the final squad will be declared in the second phase of the camp, starting on April 20 but no exact date can be pronounced for now. The Pakistan team will be looking to put in a good performance in the tournament and gain some
of their winning momentum back. It will be interesting to see which player the PHF choose to captain the side for the upcoming tournament. It seems that we will have to sit and wait until this important decision is made.
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