Experienced mid-fielder Ignace Tirkey staged a comeback to the Indian hockey team as an 18-member squad for the World Cup in Monchengladbach, Germany, in September, was announced in Chennai on Thursday.

Ignace, who was out of action for several months because of an injury, replaced Namdhari mid-fielder Ajmer Singh.

Young linkman Nitin Kumar was rewarded for his good showing in the six-nation junior tournament in Poland earlier this year and received a call-up in place of Bimal Lakra, who skipped the World Cup preparatory camp citing domestic pre-occupations.

Besides the two changes, the team that won the bronze medal in the eight-nation Azlan Shah tournament remains unchanged.

The tournament is from September 6 to 17.

The squad:

Goalkeepers: Adrian D'Souza, Bharat Kumar Chetri.

Full backs: Dilip Tirkey, Sandeep Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh.

Mid-fielders: V S Vinay, Vikram Pillay, Prabodh Tirkey, Viren Rasquinha, Nitin Kumar, Ignace Tirkey.

Forwards: Gagan Ajit Singh, Tejbir Singh, Rajpal Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Shivendra Singh, Arjun Halappa, Hari Prasad.

Chief coach: V Bhaskaran

Coach: Harendra Singh

Physio: Ravi Kanakamedala

Trainer: Derek Knox

Manager: S P Das

Videographer: S Ramakrishnan.