Vivek to lead India in Junior WC

The event will witness 16 teams from across the globe vie for the trophy, which was last won by India in 2016. While the 21-year-old Vivek, who was part of India’s historic Olympic bronze medal-winning senior team at Tokyo 2020, will captain the team, 2018 Youth Olympics silver medallist Sanjay will be his deputy.

Dinachandra Singh Moirangthem and Boby Singh Dhami have been chosen as alternate players, who will be allowed to compete only if there is an injury or someone in the 18-member squad is ruled out of the tournament due to COVID-19. Tamil Nadu’s Mareeswaran Sakthivel, who was a part of the core probable group, failed to make the cut.

“To choose the best 18 players to represent their country is one of the hardest things to do in sport. Each of these guys have put their everything into trying to make this team for the last 12-18 months,” chief coach Graham Reid said.

SQUAD: Vivek Sagar Prasad (c), Sanjay (vc), Shardanand Tiwari, Prashant Chauhan (gk), Sudeep Chirmako, Rahul Kumar Rajbhar, Maninder Singh, Pawan (gk), Vishnukant Singh, Ankit Pal, Uttam Singh, Sunil Jojo, Manjeet, Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem, Abhishek Lakra, Yashdeep Siwach, Gurmukh Singh and Araijeet Singh Hundal