LAHORE: The national hockey selectors, led by ex-Olympian Hasan Sardar, on Thursday removed captain Haseem Khan from his post besides axing him from the 18-member Pakistan squad named for the 10th Hockey Asia Cup which is scheduled to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from Oct 11-22. Muhammad Irfan Senior will be leading the team in the important tournament while the selectors also brought back six experienced players into the squad that had fared poorly in the last World Hockey League.

Rizwan Senior was named as Irfan’s deputy in place of Umar Bhutta who, unlike Haseem, retained his place in the team.

The six players, who came back into the national side, are Rashid Mehmood, Rizwan Senior, Mubashar Ali, Waqas Akbar and Muhammad Atiq besides skipper Irfan Senior.

They have replaced Nawaz Ashfaq, Aleem Bilal, Ijaz Ahmad, Muhammad Dilber and Irfan Junior.

Pakistan played awful hockey in the World Hockey League in London last June when they were squarely beaten by India twice, by Holland, Argentina and Canada with their only two wins coming against the lowly-ranked China and Scotland.

However, it was mainly thanks to the absurd format of the league that they still managed to qualify for World Cup 2018, set to be played in India.

Meanwhile, nine players have been selected as stand-bys including Irfan Junior.

Squad: Mazhar Abbas (goalkeeper), Amjad Ali (goalkeeper), Muhammad Irfan (captain), Atif Mushtaq, Mubashar Ali, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Abu Bakar Mahmood, Tasawwar Abbas, Rashid Mahmood, Rizwan Jr, Arslan Qadir, Azfar Yaqoob, Umar Bhutta, Rizwan Sr (vice captain), Ali Shan, Muhammad Atiq, Waqas Akbar and Ajaz Ahmad.

Stand-bys: Junaid Kamal, Ali Hassan Faraz, Irfan Jr, Shan Irshad, Saleem Nazim, Qamar Bukhari, Khizar Akhtar, Shajeeh Ahmed and Hassan Anwar.

Officials: Manager/Head coach: Farhat Khan; Coaches: Malik Shafqat, Muhammad Sarwar; Doctor: Dr. Atif Bashir; Video analyst: Abuzar Umrao.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2017