LAHORE, Oct 21: Coaches of the Pakistan hockey team have said that they were ready to gamble in the Afro-Asian Games by blending young players with the senior members.

“ Trying out young players is a gamble. These players would be fully exposed during the tournament,” declared coach Tahir Zaman and assistant coach Asif Bajwa on Tuesday before the departure of the team for Hyderabad, India, to compete in Afro-Asian Games hockey.

PHF has rested four senior members goalkeeper Ahmad Alam, penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas, strikers Shabbir Ahmad and Kashif Jawad after the team failed in the final of Asia Cup losing to India.

Their places have been filled by players of the junior team and the home coaches were expecting Salman Akbar, Tariq Aziz, Akhtar Ali, Shakeel Abbasi and Zeeshan Ashraf to deliver the goods.

“In the given circumstances we have fewer choices and our main concern is to see if these players can sustain high profile pressure in the matches. If they do it can boost the overall performance and help in achieving the desired results,” the coaches said.

Tahir said there would be ample opportunity to test the young players while taking advantage of the rolling substitution during the matches and stressed that the junior players cannot be groomed without exposing them at the highest level of hockey.

“We know we will go into the tournament with added pressure, because we will be without our main key players. There is no alternative other than to try junior players,” he said.

The former Pakistan captain and Olympian denied anything was at stake when the team would play in the Afro-Asian Games as the prime focus was to discover players for forming a side for playing in the qualifying rounds of the Olympics next March in Spain.

“It would be a tough tournament but our main consideration is to finalise our squad for the Olympics,” he reiterated.

Bajwa, while justifying the inclusion of junior players said they were very promising during the tour of Europe this summer when they played 23 matches in different countries but lost only two, one to Germany and the other to India.

“They have made their way to the senior team purely on the basis of their performance in the junior team and they have all the potential to perform at the top level,” he said.

To a question, the team officials said they would make optimum efforts to fully benefit from the presence of Roelant Oltmans, the Dutch coach hired by PHF on a year long contract.

Oltamns will officially be joining the team in December, adding, he will go to India not as coach but as an observer.—APP