LAHORE, Jan 5: Four changes were made in the team which took a poor fourth position in the 23rd Champions Trophy, for its next competition  of  the six-nation hockey tournament to be held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Jan 18.

The team was announced by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Brig. Mussratullah Khan after the conclusion of the two-day trials held at the National Hockey Stadium on Friday and Saturday.

Two changes were made due to fitness problems. Strikers Atif Bashir and Mohammad Nadeem who were injured have been replaced by Saleem Khalid and Ghazanfar, respectively. In the half line Imran Rasool failed to get the nod of the selectors and was replaced by Imran Yousaf. Another change was of striker Navid Iqbal who was replaced by Sameer Husain.

Atif Bashir had broken his collar-bone in the Champions Trophy while Mohammad Nadeem had fractured his finger during the training camp from which the team was selected. The report about his injury will be received on Jan 8. It was learnt that selector turned down the suggestion of captain Mohammad Sarwar to include Mohammad Nadeem in the team as the player would have recovered by the time, the team would be playing its first match of the six-nation tournament.

The team will leave for Malaysia sometime next week.

The PHF secretary said that three goalkeepers Rashid, Iqbal and Nasir were retained for the training camp which will likely to be continued till Jan 10.

The PHF secretary said that all the 28 players who were called for the present training camp for the selection of the team for the six-nation tournament would be considered for the selection of the World Cup to be held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Feb 25 to March 9.

The team is:

Goalkeepers: Muhammad Qasim, Salman Akbar.

Full-backs: Tariq Imran, Sohail Abbas, Ali Raza.

Half-backs: Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Saqlain,  Waseem Ahmad, Ghazanfar Ali, Imran Yousaf, Dilawar.

Forwards: Sameer Husain, Mudassar Ali Khan, Mohammad Sarwar (captain), Kashif Jawad, Shahbaz Ahmad, Saleem Khalid and Mohammad Shabbir.

Manager: Khalid Sajjad Khokhar. Chief coach: Hanif Khan. Coach: Khawaja Junaid.