New Delhi, Jan 21: India's hockey coach Michael Nobbs has a problem of plenty after impressive debuts by youngsters in the ongoing Test series against South Africa and he says it would be difficult to select the best 18 for next month's Olympic qualifiers.
As many as four players—Harbir Singh, SK Uthappa, Kothajit Singh, Chinglesana Singh Kangujam—made their debut in the series against South Africa and Nobbs said these young players deserve an India cap.
“In this series, we tested everybody, we deliberately designed it to see who can take a grip of the opportunities and win their position and some players did,” Nobbs said.
“We have probably the best option now and there are around 25-26 players who can play for India.
“Uthappa was brilliant, Kothajit was good too, these are some of the players who have put themselves in the mix to be selected and it would be difficult to pick the best 18 Indian players for the Olympic qualifiers now,” he added.
With the youngsters making the most of the opportunity, it would be interesting to see what happens when injured players such as Rajpal Singh make a comeback and Nobbs agrees it would take a lot of hard work for them to earn back their place in the side.
“Rajpal will need to put a lot of hard work to replace someone who is ahead of him right now. In hockey, we have a saying that never lend your stick to someone because you might not get it back. He has time to do it,” Nobbs said.
With the series already in India's pocket after the 4-3 victory last night, Nobbs said he will experiment in the fifth and final Test tomorrow.
