HYDERABAD: India's hockey team that won the silver at the recent Azlan Shah tournament will form the nucleus of the side for the junior Asia Cup starting here at the Gachibowli Stadium July 11.

A five-member committee headed by Aslam Sher Khan met here on Tuesday and retained seven players who were part of the team for the Azlan Shah cup in Malaysia in May, where India beat some top teams to emerge runners-up.

The committee selected 18 players after trials and named midfielder Gurbaz Singh captain for the July 11-18 eight-nation tournament.

India are favourites to defend their Asia Cup title which they won four years ago beating hosts Pakistan in Karachi. Pakistan have been champions in the first three editions.

The tournament has been divided into two pools and top two teams from each pool will advance to the semi-finals.

Top six teams from the tournament will qualify for next year's Junior World Cup to be hosted jointly by Malaysia and Singapore.

India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore are in pool A while Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea and Oman are in pool B.

Indian Team:
Goalkeeper:  Mrinal Chaubey, P.R. Sreejesh
Fullback:  Diwakar Ram, Innocent Kullu, Manjeet Kullu
Midfielder: Gurbaz Singh, Vivek, Ranjit Singh, Vikas Sharma, B. Horro, Amardeep Ekka
Forward: Mandeep Antil, S.V. Sunil, Gurwinder Singh, Jagwant Singh, Pramod, Roshan Minz, Danish Mujtaba
Standby: Harjit Singh (goalkeeper), Samir Baxla (fullback), Virender Lakra (midfielder) Dharam Vir, Jujhar Singh (forwards)
Coach: S.P. Bansal

Source : PTI