Green-shirts to play four matches vs Australia

Haseem Khan or Umar Bhutta to be the captain

KARACHI: Forwards Haseem Khan and Umar Bhutta are the favourites to be the new captain of the national hockey team, sources told ‘The News’ on Friday.

Pakistan will play nine international matches during their New Zealand and Australia tour, starting from the third week of March. The Green-shirts will play five test matches in New Zealand and four in Australia.

Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will announce the details of the tour in a couple of days, including the members of the team and the name of the captain.

Earlier, it was planned that Pakistan would participate in a four-nation tournament along with hosts Australia and two other teams.

But now it has been decided that Pakistan and Australia will play four test matches.

The senior team will start their third and last phase of the training camp from March 6 or 7 in Lahore or Karachi. PHF is yet to decide the place for the camp.

Pakistan’s chief coach Khwaja Junaid said the last phase of the training camp would be continued till the departure of the team.

He termed the tour very important as Pakistan team is passing through a difficult period. He said the players would learn a lot from these nine international matches against world’s two strongest teams on their soil.

Pakistan are to participate in the World Cup qualifying rounds in June in London.

The Australia, New Zeeland tour is part of the preparation for those qualifying rounds.

The chief coach said that Pakistan were playing a test series against a tough team after a long gap, as Australian are the world champions and New Zealanders are in top five teams.

He said that Amjad Ali would be the leading goalkeeper of the team, while the second goalkeeper would be selected from among the three trainees.

He said Aleem Bilal, Abu Bakar and Tasawwur Abbas would be the penalty corner specialists.

Junaid said the team would be a blend of young and experienced players.  Some players of the junior team are expected to be picked for the tour.  He said the team was likely to depart for New Zealand on March 13 or 14.