Ahead of the FIH Hockey Pro League tie against World Champions Belgium, Hockey India named 32 players for the Men's National Coaching Camp.
India made a stunning start to their maiden campaign at the FIH Hockey Pro League with a brilliant 5-2 and 3-3 (SO 3-1) win against the Netherlands.
Varun Kumar, who was out of action due to a nerve injury, has also been named for the camp. The chief coach Graham Reid said they need to improve one-on-one tackling and this will be one of the main focuses of the camp.
"The next two weeks, we will continue to stay focused on the process we have put in place. Improved fitness was one of our key strengths and it is important we keep up the optimal level," Reid said in a statement.
"The players got a good week's break before returning to camp so I am expecting everyone to be fresh. As I had mentioned earlier, we need to improve one-on-one tackling, that will be one of the main focuses of our camp, and we look forward to the challenge against the World Champions," he added.
Players named for the camp are: P R Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Birendra Lakra, Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Simranjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, S V Sunil, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gursahibjit Singh, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Jaskaran Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Gurjant Singh, Sumit, Chinglensana Singh.
India will take on Belgium on February 8 and 9.
( With inputs from ANI )