LAHORE, Nov 21: Pakistan will name their squad for next month’s Junior Hockey World Cup on Tuesday, head coach Olympian Manzoor-ul-Hasan Senior said on Thursday.

Mnzoor told Dawn that eight players, who were part of the Pakistan team which won the Asian Champions Trophy title in Japan earlier this month, have joined the training camp which is being held at two venues here.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) organised the camp in two phases with the first one being held in Islamabad and the second part commenced here the other day.

“It is the last phase of the training camp for the event and all 29 probables are attending it, Manzoor said. “The final team will be selected from that pool and will be announced on Nov 26.

“The eight junior players who were part of the senior squad at the Asian Champions Trophy have gained vital international experience and they will hopefully play an important role at the World Cup.”

The tenth edition of the Junior World Cup starts in New Dehli from Dec 6.

Pakistan’s sole triumph at the event was in its inaugural edition in 1979. Since then, Germany have been the most successful side at the tournament, winning it five times with Australia, India and Argentina claiming a title apiece.

Manzoor informed that the morning session of the camp was being held at the National Hockey Stadium with the newly-built Johar Town Hockey Stadium being used for the evening session as it was better equipped to practice late in the evening as it had effective floodlights.

“The main focus in the camp is to improve our penalty-corner conversion and finishing,” Manzoor added.

Pakistan have been drawn in Pool ‘A’ alongside Germany, Belgium and Egypt and Manzoor is optimistic about his team’s chances.

“We are in a good position to beat any side at the World Cup,” he concluded.

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