ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: Shafqat Rasool and Fareed Ahmed have been advanced to the senior squad as the hockey lords on Wednesday announced a 19-member junior squad for two upcoming international events.

“Both the players can make a vital contribution to the senior team as the Asia Cup [Dubai, May 8-15] carries more importance for us,” said the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Secretary Asif Bajwa, who recently assumed charge as the manager of the national team.

While commenting on the junior hockey squad, Bajwa pointed out: “The selection was made after getting input from Chief Coach and Manager Khawaja Junaid, Consultant Wouter Tezelaar and Danish Kaleem.”

The junior team will be travelling to Malaysia and Egypt for a four and five-nation championship, respectively, slated to be held in March in a build-up exercise for the upcoming Junior World Cup in June.

The green shirts will be testing their mettle while featuring against Malaysia, India, Singapore, Russia, Egypt, Italy and Ghana in the two tournaments.

When asked why Pakistan did not opt for a European tour or play some matches against Argentina, Bajwa informed: “In order to provide more exposure and training to the junior team, we are involved in negotiations with Belgium as Argentina’s junior team is already heavily engaged.”

Meanwhile, Chairman Selection Committee Hasan Sardar asserted that the selectors had for the first time witnessed all the league matches in order to pick the best players for the junior squad.

“We found four new players from the longest running league matches held recently,” he said.

Squad:

Goal Keepers: Imran Shah, Imran Butt.

Fullbacks: Mohammad Atiq, Khalid Bhatti, Wasif Siddiqui.

Halfbacks: Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Arshad, Amir Shahzad, Mohsin Bilal, Usman Tariq.

Forwards: Mohammad Yasir, Mohammad Taufeeq, Haseem Khan (captain), Mohammad Zubair, Shahbaz, Rizwan, Omer Bhutta, Inayatullah, Adeel Hussain.

Standbys: Khurram Majeed, Majid Khan, Kashif Idrees, Khurram Shahzad, Hassan Akhtar, Azlan Khan.