William Xalco, who suffered a fractured finger in Athens, has been included

Chandigarh: Keeping an eye on next year?s Champions Trophy and 2005 Junior World Cup, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) announced a new look 18-member team on Monday for the tour of Pakistan where the traditional rivals will clash in a Test series for the first time in five years.

As was obvious, the team does not see stalwarts like Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Gagan Ajit Singh and Deepak Thakur in the ranks because they had made themselves unavailable and /or had been injured. While veterans Pillay and Dhillon withdrew from the series because of their commitments to play for foreign clubs, Deepak Thakur opted out due to injury. Gagan Ajit pulled out due to personal reasons.

The Prabhjot Singh-Gerhard Rach controversy, though seems to have taken its toll on the player. Prabhjot had complained in Athens that he had had a raw deal from the German coach, and Rach had not agreed to this. Incidentally, Rach has the support of IHF president K.P.S. Gill, and that has tilted the scales in his favour, keeping Prabhjot out. The reason, as announced by Gill was that he was ?out of form?.

The Dilip Tirkey-led team was a ?right balance of youth and experience? he said but added he was not expecting it to do wonders in the four-match Test series in Pakistan, starting in Karachi on September 24.

Gill said: ?I don?t expect extraordinary results this time. We are in the process of building a team for the Champions Trophy in July 2005 and the Junior World Cup. We are trying to put younger players.?

India, failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy because they finished seventh in Athens (at least a sixth-pace finish was essential) but host the meet next year.

Defender William Xalco, who suffered a fractured thumb in Athens, was picked as he has recovered from the injury. Gill said while Gagan Ajit and mid-fielder Bimal Lakra had made themselves unavailable for the series, the duo would be practising with the junior national team and could be considered for the Indian leg of the series which kicks off in the national capital on October 4. Rach, who joined the team here two days back, said the main focus of the team in Pakistan would be to earn more and more penalty corners while ruling out the need to hire a psychologist for the team.

The Indian team will play the Tests in Karachi (Sept. 24), Quetta (Sept. 27), Peshawar (Sept. 29) and Lahore (Oct. 1) before hosting the neighbours in a return series from October 4-10. The opening tie of the return series will be played in New Delhi (Oct. 4) followed by Chandigarh (Oct. 6), Amritsar (Oct. 8) and Hyderabad (Oct. 10). The matches will be shown live on TEN Sports.

the SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Adrian D Souza, Devesh Chauhan; Defenders: Dilip Tirkey, Sandeep Singh, Harpal Singh, William Xalxo; Midfielders: Viren Rasquinha, Vikram Pillay, Ignace Tirkey, V S Vinay, Prabodh Tirkey, Vivek Gupta; Forwards: Adam Sinclair, Arjun Halappa, Sandeep Michael, Tushar Khandekar, Hari Prasad, Girish Pimpale. Stand bys: Bharat Chhetri, Raghunath, Samuel Nag, Birender Kalra and Inderjit Chaddha.