Saini recovery may take time

New Delhi: Injuries have deprived India of three key players in the forthcoming three-match hockey series against The Netherlands to be played in Hyderabad.

Forwards Dhanraj Pillay, Deepak Thakur and midfielder Baljit Singh Saini will miss the matches to be played on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Nineteen-year-old defender William Xalco is set to make his senior debut. Winger Inderjeet Singh and midfielder V.S. Vinay, who have both played for the India A team, are the other replacements.

Thakur, who has a hamstring injury, should recover in a fortnight. However, there is concern over Pillay, who jerked his knee in the match against Australia in the Sultan Azlan Shah meet in Kuala Lumpur.

The situation is worse with Saini, who may not recover fully even before the Olympic qualifiers starting in Madrid from March 2.

From the team which participated in the Azlan Shah meet, nine players have been picked for the upcoming matches. They are goalkeeper Kamalpreet Singh, defenders Harpal Singh and Xalco, midfielders Ignace Tirkey, Vikram Pillay, Len Aiyappa, Vinay, forwards Sandeep Michael and Baljit Singh Dhillon.

It is obvious that chief coach Rajinder Singh, who was in Kuala Lumpur as an observer, was unimpressed with most of those who were there.

The Indian performance was dismal in Kuala Lumpur, where they finished last among the seven teams. It may not have been too discouraging since India had sent a second-string team, but still, it did nothing to enhance India’s reputation as a force in world hockey.

Experiments over, it’s the time to deliver the goods now.

THE SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Devesh Chauhan, Kamalpreet Singh, Bharat Chhetri. Defenders: Dilip Tirkey (captain), Kanwalpreet Singh, Harpal Singh, William Xalco. Midfielders: Ignace Tirkey, Bimal Lakra, V.S. Vinay, Vikram Pillay, Len Aiyappa, Viren Rasquinha, Didar Singh. Forwards: Gagan Ajit Singh, Tejbir Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Prabhjot Singh, Inderjeet Singh, Sandeep Michael, Arjun Halappa. Chief coach: Rajinder Singh. Coach: Baldev Singh. Goalkeeping coach: A.B. Subbiah.