Defender Sushila Chanu will lead the Indian national junior women's team at the FIH World Cup to be played at Monchengladbach, Germany from July 27 to Aug 4.
Forward Rani has been named as Sushila's deputy and the duo will lead India, who are placed in Pool C with New Zealand, Australia and Russia.
They will take on Australia in their opening match July 27 followed by New Zealand (July 28) and Russia (July 30). All the matches will be played at the two pitches of the Warsteiner Hockey Park.
Hockey India (HI) selectors B.P. Govinda, Savitri Purty, chief coach of the senior women's team Neil Hawgood, junior women's team coach Narinder Saini and scientific advisor Matt Tredrea along with government observer Harbinder Singh selected the 18 players with nine standby's on the basis of their recent performances.
The team is currently undergoing a camp in preparation for the World Cup at the National Insitute of Sports (NIS), Patiala. As part of their preparations the women's team played five matches against Scotland in Scotland from May 1-11, out of which India won four.
The team will depart for Germany July 15 and will play four warm-up games. Their first warm-up game will be against Belgium (July 17), followed by Netherlands (July 19) and South Africa (July 21, 24).
The following is the list of selected players:
Goalkeepers: Sanarik Chanu, Bigan Soy
Defenders: Pinky Devi, Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Manjit Kaur, M.N. Poonamma, Sushila Chanu, Monika
Midfielders: Lily Chanu, Lilima Minz, Navjot Kaur, Vandana Kataria, Ritusha Arya
Forwards: Poonam Rani, Rani, Anupa Barla, Navneet Kaur
Standby's: Sukhmani Virk (Goalkeeper), Manmeet Kaur (Defender), Kiran Dahiya (Defender), Sushila Lakra (Defender), Renuka Yadav (Midfielder), Nikki Pradhan (Midfielder), Jaswinder Kaur (Forward), Neha Goyal (Forward), Punam Barla (Forward)
