LAHORE, June 12: Injured striker Shakeel Abbasi, who neither trained during the camp nor participated in the trials, was retained as captain of the 18-member Pakistan team for the Junior World Cup hockey in Rotterdam starting from June 30 to July 10.

Shakeel, who missed the crucial match against Malaysia in the Azlan Shah Cup due to injury, has not recovered as yet.

“Shakeel will start playing in next two or three days and will be fully fit before the team leaves for Belgium,” chief selector Akhtar Rasool said while announcing the team after watching trials at National Hockey Stadium on Sunday.

The selectors did not make any changes to the team which recently won a four-nation tournament in Lahore and later a six-nation at Kuala Lumpur.

“Considering the recent performances by the team we are hopeful Pakistan will win the World Cup,” said Akhtar.

Apart from Islahuddin Siddiqui, all members of the selection committee were present to watch the trials. Islah has not been attending trials since the new selection committee was formed after the Athens Olympics.

Asked about Islahuddin’s absence, secretary PHF Musarrat Ullah Khan said he (Islahuddin) had been informing the PHF about his unavailability for the trials and he did the same again by sending a message on Saturday.

“The continued absence of Islahuddin will be discussed with the president PHF in next meeting to take a final decision in this regard,” secretary said. Tahir Zaman will be the coach, Khawaja Junaid and Mansoorul Haq assistant Coaches, while Mohammad Shafique manager. Rana Mujahid, Kamran Ashraf, and Rana Zaheer Babar will attend FIH High Performance coaching course to be held during the event.

The training camp will continue till June 20 and the team will leave for Belgium via Kuwait the next day. The team will also play one match each against Argentina and South Africa in Belgium before reaching the Netherlands.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Nasir Ahmad, Mohammad Iqbal.

Full-back: Imran Warsi, Mohammad Imran, Ikhlaq Ahmad.

Half-backs: Imran Khan, Mohammad Khalid Mahmood, Asim Khan, Rana Asif, Sajjad Anwar.

Forwards: Adnan Zakir, Kashif Yaqoob, Yasir Islam, Mohammad Ashfaq, Shakeel Abbasi (captain), Mohammad Arif, Tariq Aziz (vice-captain), Akhtar Ali.

Reserves: Farhan, Shakir Munir, Khaliq, Zubair, Naeem Akbar, Shabbir, Mahmood (subject to fitness).

Officials: Mohammad Shafique (manager), Tahir Zaman (coach), Khawaja Junaid, Mansoor-ul-Haq (assistant coaches), Asad Abbas Shah (doctor), Faiz-ur-Rehman (physiotherapist), Kamran Ashraf (video analyst).