England have named their 18-man squad for the Odisha Men’s Hockey World League Final in India where Barry Middleton is set to make his 400th international appearance.
 
The tournament sees eight of the world’s best sides battle it out between 1-10 December in Bhubaneswar with England taking on world number two Australia, Germany and eight-time Olympic champions India in Pool B.
 
Middleton, 33, made his international debut on 7 April 2003 and has gone on to represent England and Great Britain a combined 397 times. Should he feature in all of England’s group games he would reach the landmark of 400 against Australia on Monday 4 December.
 
England will be hoping to build on their successes so far in 2017, with a number of the squad part of the Great Britain side that won gold at the Azlan Shah Cup in May before England defeated Germany at the European Championships to take bronze.
 
Liam Ansell, Luke Taylor and James Gall have all been called up to the squad and will compete at their first major senior tournaments for England, while Ian Sloan and Michael Hoare miss out through injury.
 
Head coach Bobby Crutchley said: “We are really excited about the challenge ahead at the World League Finals in Bhubaneswar against some of the best sides in the world. The tournament provides us with a great opportunity to learn more about our players and to both grow and improve the depth in our squad ahead of events in 2018.”
 
England will contest in the opening match of the showcase tournament against Germany on 1 December before playing India on 2 December and completing their pool against Australia two days later.
 
All matches from the tournament will be shown live on BT Sport with full timings and listings below.
 
David Ames (Holcombe)
Liam Ansell (East Grinstead)
David Condon (East Grinstead)
Brendan Creed (Surbiton)
Adam Dixon (Beeston)
James Gall (Surbiton)
Harry Gibson (Surbiton)
Mark Gleghorne (Beeston)
David Goodfield (Surbiton)
Chris Griffiths (East Grinstead)
Harry Martin (Hampstead & Westminster)
Barry Middleton (Holcombe)
George Pinner (Holcombe)
Phil Roper (Wimbledon)
Liam Sanford (Reading)
Luke Taylor (Surbiton)
Sam Ward (Beeston)
Henry Weir (Wimbledon)
 
Fri 1 Dec – Germany 11.15am UK time
Sat 2 Dec – India 2pm UK time
Mon 4 Dec – Australia 12.00pm UK time
Wed 6/Thu 7 Dec – Quarter-Finals
Fri 8/Sat 9 Dec – Semi Finals
Sun 10 Dec – Final