New Delhi: Ranked No. 11 in the world and buried at the rock bottom of the standings at the London Olympics, Indian hockey bit the bullet before announcing the squad to tour Australia. And a fortnight later, bosses at Hockey India will have a rare smile on their face as the boys have made it to the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy.
Sandeep Singh, Bharat Chetri, Igance Tirkey, Shivendra Singh and Tushar Khandker were all given the boot by Hockey India. To some it appeared shooting yourself in the foot, but the selectors' move to blood youngsters has turned into gold.
Nithin Thimmiah, PT Rao, Akashdeep Singh and Yuvraj Walmiki are some of the names who have rise on the big stage and put it across England and New Zealand in the preliminaries before edging out Belgium in the quarter-finals.
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12:48 PM, Dec 07, 2012
