Awais to lead President XI in Hockey Series Open

KARACHI: Awaisur Rehman will lead President XI in Hockey Series Open, which is scheduled from December 17-22 at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore.

Chief selector Islahuddin announced the 18-member team.The Hockey Series Open is an FIH event and the four nations competing here are Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Nepal.Since Pakistan has been selected for the FIH Pro League, the high profile new event starting from early 2019, the Pakistan side here is not the national side and will enter as the President XI.

The matches played by the President XI will be considered friendly games and will not carry any points towards the event.The other four sides will be competing against each other in real terms.

President XI:Goalkeepers: Muneebur Rehman, Hafiz Umair

Defenders: Abid Bhatti, M Ammar, Samiullah & Mubashar Jibran

Midfielders: Usman Ghani, Mohibullah, Ali Raza & Asif Hanif

Forwards: Zaheer Hussain, Abdul Mannan, Murtaza Yaqoob, Awaisur Rehman (Captain), Qamar Bhukhari, Arsalan Haider, Zulqarnain & Mohsin Khan.

PHF president Brig (rtd) Khalid Sajjad Khokhar has named the following officials for the President XI.

Manager: Shahid Parvez Bhandara

Coaches: Kashif Jawad and Muhammad Shabbir.