India announced an 18-member squad, packed with nine strikers, for the upcoming junior women's hockey World Cup, in Santiago, Chile, in September.

The team was picked following selection trials from July 28 to 30 at the Major Dhayanchand stadium in Delhi [Images].

India, who finished ninth in the last edition of the tournament, will be keen to improve their position this time around and in order to hone their skills before the September 14-25 mega event they will play some practice matches against teams like Scotland, Holland and Chile.

The squad includes two goalkeepers, three deep defenders and four mid-fielders besides nine strikers, a statement from the Indian Women's Hockey Federation said, adding the captain would be named later.

India are pitted in Pool B along with South Africa [Images], Germany [Images] and Canada [Images].

The team will open its campaign against South Africa on September 14 before playing Canada the next day. Their final preliminary round match would be against Germany on September

17.

According to the competition format, the teams play each other in the pool league before the top three progress to the next phase. The fourth-placed team in each Pool will play off for 13th-16th positions.

In the second stage, the four pools combine to form two groups of six. Teams will take forward the points earned against the other qualified teams from their pool and then play the remaining teams that were not from their original pool to complete six preliminary round matches.

The top two teams in each six-team group at the end of this phase of the competition will progress to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals will contest for the title on September 24.

With four editions of the event held so far, no team has till now been able to claim the title more than once. Germany, Argentina, Holland and Korea, all of whom have won the title once, are again among the favourites.

The Indian team is scheduled to leave for Chile on September 3.

Team:

Rajni Bala, Nisha Singh (both goalkepeers), Rajwinder Kaur, Anjana Barla, Joydeep Kaur (all defenders), Subhadra Pradhan, Asunta Lakra, Gagandeep Kaur, Guddi Kumari (all mid-fielders), Ranjita, Saba Anjum, Deepika Thakur, Sarita Lakra, Amrita Ming, Jasjeet Kaur, Sarvjeet Kaur, S Ranjita, Chanchan Devi.

Stand-byes: Poonam Toppo, Harjinder Kaur, Ramneek Kaur, Sushma Kiran Ming.

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