Internet Desk: P.R. Sreejesh replaced Sardar Singh as captain of the Indian men’s hockey team and Sushila Chanu was named as captain of the women’s hockey team, respectively, that will compete at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Sreejesh was also the captain of the Indian team that won a historic silver medal at the recently-held Champions Trophy. The 28-year-old from Tamil Nadu has played 156 international matches so far.
Sreejesh’s selection, however, comes as a surprise as Sardar Singh, who has been the Indian captain over the past few years, is in the squad. Sardar was the captain in the 2012 London Olympics too.
Sushila was appointed the Indian women’s hockey team after Ritu Rani was dropped by the selectors due to poor form and attitude problems.
India finished last among 12 teams at the 2012 London Olympics. The five-time gold medal winners, however, were the first team to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics as they beat Pakistan in the 2014 Asian Games final.
Indian women’s team qualified for the first time in Olympics after stellar show at the Hockey World League Semifinals in 2015. Their maiden and till now only appearance in the Olympics was in the 1980 Moscow edition, but there was no qualification process back then.
Men’s Team: Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Sardar Singh, V.R. Raghunath, S.K. Uthappa, P.R. Sreejesh (Captain), Danish Mujtaba, Devinder Walmiki, S.V. Sunil, Akashdeep Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Nikkin Thimmiah.
Standbyes: Pardeep Mor, Vikash Dahiya.