India missed chances aplenty in their opening two games of the ongoing 24th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament and national captain Sardar Singh minced no words when he said that the team's forwardline will have to play more responsibly to give themselves any chance of reaching the final.
The Tokyo Games are scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8.
The squad includes goalkeepers PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, and defenders Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Jugraj Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, and Gurinder Singh.
Australian Terry Walsh is set to be appointed as head coach of the Indian men's hockey team after the Sports Authority of India recommended his name to the Sports Ministry.
A traditional rivalry will take centre stage when India take on Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Under-18 Asia Cup hockey tournament in Dhaka, on Thursday.
Plagued by injuries, India named a young 18-member squad to be led by the inspirational Sardar Singh in the crucial Asia Cup hockey tournament scheduled from August 24 to September 1 in Ipoh, Malaysia.
"I am fortunate to be part of this important tournament and it becomes more special as I will be playing along with my brother Devindar Walmiki. This is like a dream come true as we always spoke about representing the country together and this dream is soon to get realised."
Defending champions Ranchi Rhinos eked out a close 2-1 win over Uttar Pradesh Wizards to consolidate their position in the points table of the Hero Hockey India League (HHIL) at the Dhyan Chand Stadium in Lucknow.
The hosts piled pressure on India with their structured attack and earned two penalty corners in the 5th and 7th respectively, but the Indian defence stood tall to deny them from scoring the second goal.
India swept the International Hockey Federation's annual awards on Wednesday, claiming all the top honours, based on a voting system which was lambasted as a "failure" by men's Olympic champions Belgium, prompting the FIH to say that it would try to figure why some associations did not cast their ballot.
A battle royal is in the offing when India meets Pakistan in the Asia Cup in Sunday's final.
Forward Mumtaz Khan (8th, 11th, 12th, 15th) scored four times and Chetna scored thrice (6th, 14th, 17th) to help India achieve the dominating win on Monday night.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
In a nerve-wracking contest, India beat Pakistan in penalty-shootout to clinch the coveted hockey gold at the Asian Games in Incheon on Thursday. This triumph ensures the Indian hockey team a berth at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Belgium are on red hot form and have stunned strong gold medal contenders and world champions Australia.
With the win, the defending gold medallists avoided a possible quarter-final clash with Russia, and will instead play the winner of Latvia versus Switzerland qualification game.
India's women's hockey team skipper Rani Ramphal says the team is now looking forward to the semi-finals.
India conceded a soft goal in the fifth minute of the second semi-final encounter when Cedric Charlier scored from a field strike for Belgium, which eventually separated both the teams at the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel stadium.
The second edition of the Hockey India League gets underway on Saturday with Punjab Warriors taking on Delhi Waveriders in the opening match at the newly-built International Hockey Stadium in Mohali.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
'If we want to ensure this isn't a once-in-four-decade phenomenon, then we have to produce 1,800 players all the time, create infrastructure, so that we are constantly challenging at the top of the ladder.'
The story of Sahara India Pariwar founder Subrata Roy, who died in Mumbai on November 14 aged 75, is the stuff of movies - of a spectacular rise and an equally spectacular fall. Born in Araria, Bihar, Roy was 30 when he set up Sahara in 1978. He started with a capital of about Rs 2,000, a peon, a clerk and his father's Lambretta scooter in Gorakhpur, eastern Uttar Pradesh, writes Tamal Bandyopadhyay in his 2014 book, Sahara: The Untold Story. Sahara was not his first venture.
Goalkeeper P R Sreejesh's magnificent effort went in vain as Olympic champions Germany beat hosts India 1-0 in their opening Pool B match of the Hero Champions Trophy.
India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Ranchi Rhinos' have retained most of the players.
An inspired Pakistan put their disappointing showing in the pool matches behind to stun World Cup and Olympics silver medallists the Netherlands 4-2 and reach the semi-finals of the Hero Champions Trophy hockey tournament, in Bhubaneswar, on Thursday.
Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh and defender Birendra Lakra, who played starring roles in the Indian hockey team's historic bronze medal-winning Tokyo Olympics campaign, on Thursday announced their international retirements.
India dished out a lackluster performance to go down 0-3 to Argentina in the opening match of the Hockey World League (HWL) Final in front of a packed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium in Raipur on Friday.
Eager to change the shade of the Tokyo bronze, the Indian men's hockey team is now focussing on directly qualifying for the Paris Olympics by winning next year's Asian Games, says young midfielder Hardik Singh.
Preparing for the AFC Asian Cup, two of India's top women's team footballers are taking inspiration from their counterparts in hockey, who claimed a historic fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics.
'They're a great team. You can't give away opportunities like that to a fantastic team like that.'
Better late than never! That's the thought on Manipuris minds as they gear up to host their first ever international tournament from Wednesday.
Playing New Zealand and Great Britain in upcoming matches will be good preparation in an Olympic year, feels skipper Rani.
Indian defence crumbled under the onslaught of a rampaging Australia as they were handed a 1-5 thrashing by the world champions in their second league fixture of the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh, Malaysia on Thursday. Australia, the eight-time winners of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, launched their campaign to reclaim the title they lost to New Zealand last year with a dominant performance against the Indian side seeking to provide exposure to several youngsters. Blake Govers (fifth minute), Jacob Whetton (13th), Eddie Okkenden (20th), Simon Orchard (25th) and Matt Ghodes (53rd) scored for Australia, who have brought virtually their full-strength squad to prepare for the Olympic Games. India's lone goal came through a penalty corner conversion by Rupinder Pal Singh in the eighth minute. This was Australia first outing in the round-robin league, while India prevailed 2-1 over Japan on Wednesday in an unimpressive campaign opener.
The United States triumphed 3-2 following a remarkable sudden-death shootout after the teams finished level at 2-2 after overtime in a thrilling Winter Olympics preliminary game.
Indian men's hockey team finished a disappointing fourth at the Commonwealth Games as it struggled to breach a stout England defence to lose the bronze medal match 1-2, in Gold Coast, on Saturday.
Senior players like Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and PR Sreejesh will give the tournament a miss.
India put up a gallant fight before going down 2-3 to the Netherlands in their opening match of the Hero FIH Junior hockey World Cup, in Delhi, on Friday.
Wrestler Bajrang Punia will be the flag bearer at closing ceremony at Tokyo Games on August 8.
Minnows Austria continued to impress in the ongoing men's Junior Hockey World Cup as they spanked declining Asian powerhouse Korea 5-2 in Lucknow on Saturday to remain in contention for a surprise quarter-final berth from Pool A in the 16-team tournament.
