Sardar Singh

In a season where you have the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games, Champions Trophy and the biggie, the World Cup, the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament (March 3 to 10) seems to shrink in importance. But come back to preparation, training, organisation, mental make-up, the measure of preparedness can only be gauged in tournaments like the Azlan. But for some reason, the Indian team is going with a mixed team, resting crucial players and giving three players - Sumit Kumar (Junior), Mandeep Mor and Shilanand Lakra - who make their maiden senior team debut.