Dilip Tirkey retained captain
for Champions Trophy

Full-back Dilip Tirkey has been retained captain of the Indian hockey team for the upcoming four-nation tournament in The Netherlands and the Champions Trophy in Germany.

Mercurial forward Dhanraj Pillay, who was not part of the team that took part in the recent four-nation tourney in Australia, also makes a return to the squad.

Indian Hockey Federation president K P S Gill told reporters in Bangalore on Thursday that except for Sandeep Michael of Karnataka, who would play only in the four-nation tournament at Amsterdam from August 22 to 25, the rest of the team will proceed for the August 31 - September 8 Champions Trophy in Cologne.

A preparatory camp for the team is on at the Karnataka State Association stadium.

Australia, South Korea and The Netherlands are the other teams in the four-nation tournament.

In the Champions Trophy, India will compete with Australia, Germany, South Korea, The Netherlands and Pakistan.

Gill also informed that the Indian team for the Asian Games would "more or less" be the same.

Rajinder Singh is the chief coach of the team.

The team:
Goalkeepers: Devesh Chauhan (IOCL), Bharat Chetri (Karnataka).
Deep defenders: Dilip Tirkey (Indian Airlines), Jugraj Singh (Punjab), Kanwalpreet Singh (Punjab), Dinesh Nayak (Tamil Nadu).
Midfielders: S S Gill (BPCL), Viren Rasquinha (IOCL), Vikram Pillai (Mumbai), Ignatius Tirkey (Services), Bimal Lakra (Indian Airlines).
Forwards: Dhanraj Pillay (Indian Airlines), Deepak Thakur (IOCL), Prabjot Singh (IOCL), Daljit Singh Dhillon (Punjab), Gagan Ajit Singh (Punjab), Arjun Halappa (Karnataka), Tejbir Singh (Punjab), Sandeep Michael (Karnataka).