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LAHORE Strikers Shafqat Rasool and Abbas Haider failed to retain their places as Mohammad Rizwan and Umer Bhutta replaced them in the national 18-member hockey team which was announced for the Challenge Trophy-I, to be held in Salta, Argentina from Dec 6 to 13.
Chief selector Olympian Hasan Sardar, while announcing the team after one-day trials at the National Hockey Stadium on Monday, said both Shafqat and Haider's performances were not satisfactory in the World Cup qualifiers held in Lille, France, earlier this month.
However, Hasan Sardar said both could regain their places in the team after giving improved performances in future.
'The two youngsters, Umar and Rizwan, have been given chances to prove their mettle as we are also trying to test our bench strength,' he said.
Defending the performances of the senior players in Lille, Hasan said they had all performed well in France and it was why they had been inducted in the team because the selectors wanted more from them at their peak.
About the victory chances in Salta, he said the national team was in rhythm and putting in its best efforts to revive the past glory and he was seeing good prospects.
He said the Challenge Trophy will help the team to get more training before entering the World Cup in India.
Pakistan are placed in group 'B' with South Africa, Canada and the host.
In group 'A' Belgium, China, India and New Zealand are included.
The team will leave for Salta on Nov 30.
Team
Goalkeepers Salman Akbar, Nasir Ahmad.
Full-back Zeeshan Ashraf (captain), Sohail Abbas, Mohammad Imran.
Half-back Wasim Ahmad, Sajjad Anwar, Fareed Ahmad, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Arshad.
Forwards Shakeel Abbasi, Mohammad Zubyr, Mohammad Waqas, Rehan Butt,Abdul Haseem Khan, Akhtar Ali, Umar Bhutta, Mohammad Rizwan.
