Gagan Ajit Singh

New Delhi: Vasudevan Baskaran does not believe in wasting time.

Moments after being made the national hockey coach for the third time, the former Olympic gold-medallist jumped to the defence of Indian Hockey Federation’s (IHF) selection of the squad.

While Baskaran, who rushed to the capital on Monday morning after receiving an SOS from the IHF, expectedly replaced Rajinder Singh junior as the coach till the Doha Asian Games, the IHF decided to drop some of the leading players including captain Ignace Tirkey and Deepak Thakur.

Two players, striker Gagan Ajit Singh and drag-flicker Jugraj Singh, have returned to the 18-member squad for the tournament in Monchengladbach, Germany, starting on April 15.

Gagan Ajit, who was excluded from the squad for the Pakistan series and the Commonwealth Games, has been named the captain.

Apart from Ignace Tirkey and Deepak Thakur, three other players ? Viren Rasquinha, Harpal Singh and Harpal Singh ? have been left out of the squad.

Baskaran, however, taking a cue from IHF secretary Jyothikumaran, struck down the suggestion that these players have been dropped.

“Nobody has been dropped,” Baskaran said.

“They all can return to the squad in near future. Ignace and Harpal are injured. Deepak is a fine player and I am sure will be back in the Indian team.”

Interestingly, the IHF selected the team without even bothering to consult the newly-appointed coach. Baskaran said he was happy to find Jugraj Singh getting back into the team after the accident two and half years ago.

“I am not in favour of chop and change in the squad. It is nice to have Jugraj back. He deserves all the backing, and after his accident, many had ruled him out for good.”

It could be recalled that a few months ago Baskaran went on record criticising the selection policy of the IHF. He even suggested that a coach should be given at least a four-year stint to prove his potential. He had also demanded that Indian coaches should be given remuneration equal to that of foreign coaches.

The coach did not have too many kind words for his predecessor Rajinder Singh.

“Even with this team we could have won a medal in Melbourne. My main job will be now be restore the confidence back in the team.

THE SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Bharat Chhetri and Baljit Singh; Defenders: Sandeep Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, William Xalxo and Jugraj Singh; Midfielders: Vikram Pillai, Prabodh Tirkey, Arjun Halappa, Sardana Singh and Ajmer Singh; Forwards: Rajpal Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Tejbir Singh, Hariprasad, Adam Sinclair, Shivendra Singh and Gagan Ajit Singh
Coach: V Baskaran. Assistant coach: Harendra Singh. Goalkeeper coach: MR Negi. Manager: GM Srivastava.