India look to plug weak defence

BHUBANESWAR: Sardar Singh & Co will play the first of a four-match series against Japan at Kalinga Stadium on Sunday as they look to prepare for the World League semifinals to be played in Antwerp, Belgium, in June.
This will be Dutchman Paul van Ass's second assignment after being appointed coach of the national hockey team early this year. On his first assignment, India came third at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup held in Malaysia last month.This time around, Japan are not expected to pose a tough challenge.
Though Japan (16th) are currently ranked seven places below India (9th), the Dutchman has named a full-strength 24-man squad that includes all the 18 players who won bronze in Malaysia.
Among the remaining six, there are a number of promising youngsters including Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Yuvraj Walmiki.
It will be interesting to see how the 19-year-old Harmanpreet performs at the international level after he helped the India under-21 side retain the Sultan of Johor Bahru Cup in 2014. The drag-flicker also earned a lot of praise in the third edition of the Hockey India League, where he scored five goals for Dabang Mumbai.