Seasoned players Dilip Tirkey, Gagan Ajit Singh, Viren Rasquinha, Adrian D'Souza and Sandeep Singh were named among 32 probables for the upcoming Champions Challenge Cup men's field hockey tournament.
While Sandeep was out of action because of a freak gun shot accident, Tirkey, who was initially down with jaundice, got married before a subsequent ankle injury kept him out of action.
The other abovementioned senior players were axed from the India team following a disastrous performance in the World Cup last year.
The 32 players, who were picked after a meeting of the selection committee and coach Joaquim Carvalho, will take part in a training camp in Bangalore from May 23 to June 12.
The tournament will be held in Boom, Belgium, from June 23 to July 1.
Missing from the list was Didar Singh, who was part of the squad for the recent Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia.
Ignace Tirkey, who returned home prematurely from the Azlan Shah tournament, was not considered, as also was Kanwalpreet Singh, Vikram Pillay, Arjun Halappa, V S Vinaya, Nitin Kumar, Hari Prasad and Tejbir Singh.
Instead, finding a place were promising youngsters Sunil Yadav and Bruno Lugun.
The 32 probables:
Goalkeepers: Adrian D'Souza, Bharat Chetri, Baljit Singh and Gurpreet Singh.
Defenders: Dilip Tirkey, William Xalxo, S Raghunath, Tussavurjit Singh, Sandeep Singh, Sunil Yadav.
Midfielders: Gurbaj Singh, Vickram Kanth, Bimal Lakra, Sardara Singh, Prabodh Tirkey, Bimal Lakra, Senthil Kumar, Jaswinder Singh, Ajitesh Roy and Viren Rasquinha.
Forwards: Rajpal Singh, Roshan Minz, Bharat Chikkara, Prabhjot Singh, Deepak Thakur, Tushar Khandeker, Shivendra Singh, Bruno Lugun, Yudhvir Singh, Sunil Kumar, Damandeep Singh and Gagan Ajit Singh.
Officials: Joaquim Carvalho (chief coach), M P Singh (coach), M Ramesh Parmeswaran (Asstt. coach), Srikanth (physio), Ganguly Prasad (trainer), Jayaprakash (doctor), Vinodh (video analyst), M M Sommaya (technical director) and R K Shetty (manager and coordinator).
