Senior India forwards Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur were on Thursday dropped from the list of 45 probables selected for the coaching camp at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune for the 19th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup International hockey tournament to be held in Malaysia.
A six-member
selection committee met on Thursday to finalise the list of players, which includes six goalkeepers, seven fullbacks, 16 mid-fielders and as many forwards.
Both Prabhjot and Thakur had performed badly in the recently held World Cup and head coach Jose Brasa and officials were critical of their performance. The camp, starting April 13 at Ipoh, in Malaysia , will continue till the departure of the team for the tourney on May 6.
The meeting was attended by Col Balbir Singh, Munneer Sait, B P Govinda, Sita Mehta Ajitpal Singh and Zafar Iqbal. India — the defending champions — will face China in their opener and will next take on Pakistan a day later.
The other countries competing in the 10-day tournament are world champions Australia, Asian champions South Korea, Egypt and hosts Malaysia.
The event will be played in a round-robin format with the two top teams clashing for the trophy. The third and fourth teams will play for the bronze medal.
India have previously won the title in 1985, 1991, 1995 and 2009 and were runners-up two years ago.