New Delhi, Sep 30 (Inditop.com) Hockey India’s (HI) new selection committee Wednesday selected its first team for the tour to Canada from Oct 2-5 without a designated captain.

Taking the cue from most international sides, the selectors have given chief coach Jose Brasa a free hand in rotating the captaincy.

“The idea of not naming a captain is not to allow the team management to pick the team it wants and nominate a captain on rotation,” HI secretary-general Aslam Khan told Inditop.

Aslam said even on the European tour the capatincy was rotated even though Sandeep Singh was named captain.

The 11th-ranked India will play a seven-Test series against Canada, ranked 12th, at Victoria and Vancouver.

The tour is to prepare the Indian team for the Champions Challenge I tournament at Salta, Argentina, in December and later for the World Cup in February-March here.

Those dropped from the European tour side are injured goalkeeper Baljeet Singh, Prabodh Tirkey (mid-field), Ignace Tirkey (mid-field), V S Vinaya (mid-field), Tushar Khandekar (forward), Hari Prasad (forward), Ravi Pal Singh (forward).

P R Sreejesh, Dharamvir Singh (mid-field), Danish Mujtaba (mid-field), Sarwanjit Singh (forward), Roshan Minz (forward), Amir Khan (forward) are the new inclusions.

Ajitesh Roy who was in the mid-field on the European tour is among the reserve players this time.

Team:

Goalkeepers: Adrian D’Souza, PR Sreejesh

Defenders: Sandeep Singh, V Raghunath, Sardar Singh

Midfielders: Gurbaj Singh, Vikram Pillay, Dhananjay Mahadik, Dharamvir Singh, Birendar Lakra – Sr., Danish Mujtaba

Forwards: Bharat Chikara, Arjun Halappa, Tushar Khandker, Rajpal Singh, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Prabhjot Singh, SV Sunil, Shivendra Singh, Sarwanjit Singh, Roshan Minz Amir Khan.

Standbys: Mandip Antil, Birendra Lakra – Jr., Bharat Chetri, VS Vinaya, Ajitesh Roy

Fixture:

1st Test October 9th Victoria

2nd Test October 11th Victoria

3rd Test October 14th Vancouver

4th Test October 16th Vancouver

5th Test October 18th Vancouver

6th Test October 22nd Vancouver

7th Test October 24th Vancouver