New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS) Rajpal Singh has been named the captain of the Indian hockey team for its campaign in the World Cup starting here Feb 28.

The selectors met here Saturday and announced an 18-member team for the mega event.

Speculation was rife in the media that Prabhjot Singh will replace Rajpal as captain.

A Hockey India (HI) source said the speculation over the change of guard seems to have begun in the team bus when the players were going for the trials and someone announced that there is likely to be change in captaincy and also four vice-captains will be named.

HI selectors, however, retained Rajpal as captain.

Also, there was little scope of making any changes as selectors had to pick 18 out of 21 probables with S.V. Sunil already out with a knee injury.

Skipper Rajpal Singh said the team was looking forward to the tournament.

'Our aim will be to perform well and finish among the top four. The players are putting efforts and we are happy with the preparation,' said the forward.

B.P. Govinda, Madhu Yadav, Sita Mehta were present in the selection commitee meeting while Ajit Pal and Zafar Iqbal were present as government nominees.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Adrian D'souza, P.R. Sreejesh

Defenders: Sandeep Singh, Diwakar Ram, Dhananjay Mahadik

Mid fielders: Gurbaj Singh, Vikram Pillay, Arjun Halappa, Bharat Chikara, Danish Mustafa, Tushar Khandekar

Forwards: Deepak Thakur, Gurinder Chandi, Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Sarwanjit Singh, Arjun Halappa, Shivendra Singh.