National hockey team coach Naveed Alam picked four new faces on Saturday for the second phase of camp ahead of the Asia Cup, scheduled to start on August 24 in Malaysia.
Pakistani coach Naveed Alam, who took charge of the national team on July 2, had whittled down the squad to 25 players from the initial 33 after a 33-day conditioning camp and will announce his 18-member final squad after the Eid-ul-Fitr.
Naveed made his cuts on the basis of five intra-squad practice matches on Friday and Saturday.
Sadikur Rahman Situl of Bangladesh Army, who was on the standby list for the World Hockey League’s second round, was selected by Naveed, while BKSP’s Farhad Ahmed, Soaib Ali and Rumman Sarker also received second chances to prove themselves worthy of the final squad. The rest of the players selected for the second phase preparation camp are all well-established in the national set-up.
Mashiur Rahman Biplob, one of the national team’s senior players, was happy with the newly-appointed coach.
`The new coach is technically very sound and he is also very friendly with us. Overall, the preparation is very good and after reducing the squad I think training will run very smoothly,’ said Biplob after the practice session on Saturday afternoon.
The 25-member national hockey team:
Zahid Hossain, Asim Gope, Mamunur Rahman Chayan, Khorshedur Rahman, Mashiur Rahman Biplob, Emran Hasan Pintu, Rokonuzzaman Sohag, Tapash Barman, Irfanul Haque, Abdullah Al Mansur, Kamruzzaman Rana, Sheikh Md Nannu, Sarwar Hossain Jr, Abdul Malek, Sabbir Rana, Rasel Mahmud Jimmy, Pushkar Khisha Mimo, Krishna Kumar, Mainul Islam Kaushik, Hasan Zubayer Niloy, Rubel Hossain, Sadikur Rahman Situl, Farhad Ahmed, Soaib Ali, Rumman Sarker.
-With New Age input
