Chennai: Experienced midfielder Ignace Tirkey made a comeback as an 18-member squad was announced here on Thursday for the World Cup in Monchengladbach, Germany, next month.

Ignace, out of action for several months owing to injury, replaced Ajmer Singh.

Young linkman Nitin Kumar was rewarded for his good show in the six-nation junior tournament in Poland earlier this year and received a call-up in place of Bimal Lakra, who skipped the World Cup preparatory camp citing domestic pre-occupations.

Announcing the squad, IHF president K.P.S. Gill said the selectors went by the coaches’ request.

“The team had been gelling well. The selectors had watched them in the Champions Trophy here, then in the Azlan Shah tournament where they won the bronze medal and Independence Cup. At this point of time, we decided to go by their request,” he said.

THE SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Adrian D’Souza, Bharat Kumar Chhetri; Full backs: Dilip Tirkey, Sandeep Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh; Midfielders: V.S. Vinay, Vikram Pillay, Prabodh Tirkey, Viren Rasquinha, Nitin Kumar, Ignace Tirkey; Forwards: Gagan Ajit Singh, Tejbir Singh, Rajpal Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Shivendra Singh, Arjun Halappa, Hari Prasad; Chief coach: V. Baskaran; Coach: Harendra Singh; Physio: Ravi Kanakamedala; Trainer: Derek Knox; Manager: S.P. Das; Videographer: S Ramakrishnan.