The National Selection Committee of Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has announced the 18 member team for 8th Asia Cup Hockey Tournament.
Chief Selector Hassan Sardar said six changes have been made in the team, four senior and two junior players replaced six other players. Pakistan team is participating in a prestigious tournament after a long time and the team had very short time for preparations, but we still have the hopes that the team will produce good results in the tournament. Our goal keeping section was too week in Azlan Shah Cup, but after come back of Salman Akbar the goal keeping section will also get strong.
Selected 18 players are Salman Akbar (Goal Keeper), Zeeshan Ashraf (Captain), Sohail Abbas, Muhammad Imran (Full Backs), Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Saqlain, Fareed Ahmad, Dilawar Hussain, Sajjad Anwar, Waseem Ahmad (Halves), Rehan Butt, Waqas Sharif, Tariq Aziz, Abdul Haseem Khan, Shakeel Abbasi, Abbas Haider, Shafqat Rasool and Akhtar Ali (Forwards). The team management is Muhammad Asif Bajwa (Manager), Shahid Ali Khan and Kamran Ashraf (Coach), Fair Ur Rehman (Physio) and Nadeem Khan Lodhi (Video Analyst).
The training camp will continue till 3 May and the team will leave for Malaysia on 4 May. Pakistan will play warm up matches against Malaysia and Japan on 5 and 7 May respectively. The first match will be played against China on 9 May, the second match will be played against India on 10 May and last pool match will be played against Bangladesh on 12 May.
Source: PHF
