08/02/2010 10:17 PM
Australian men's hockey coach Ric Charlesworth has sprung a surprise by including inexperienced Kieran Govers to his 18-man World Cup squad which was announced on Monday.
However, Charlesworth has made little change to the squad that completed a successful Champions Trophy campaign in Melbourne late last year.
Govers, 21, only just made his debut with the Kookaburras in a three-Test series against Korea in Hobart less than a fortnight ago.
Defender Kiel Brown joins Govers as the other change to the Australian Champions Trophy team at the expense of Brent Dancer and Brent Livermore.
While the Kookaburras enter this year's World Cup, held in New Delhi from February 28 - March 13, as one of the favourites, Charlesworth was more than wary of the fact that there are many countries which could take out the title.
"I believe there is at least half a dozen teams who are capable of winning," he said.
"Although we will be one of the favourites, the only pressure we will have is the internal pressure we put on ourselves to play well."
"This tournament is a big event, it will be very exciting and a new experience for a lot of them to play in India for the first time."
Australia, which has won the World Cup once back in 1986, will finetune its preparations for the tournament with two tests against New Zealand in Perth on February 17 and 19.
Australia squad
Des Abbott, George Bazeley, Graeme Begbie, Kiel Brown, Nathan Burgers, Matthew Butturini, Liam De Young, Luke Doerner, Jamie Dwyer, Kieran Govers, Rob Hammond, Fergus Kavanagh, Mark Knowles, Eddie Ockenden, Simon Orchard, Grant Schubert, Matthew Swann, Glenn Turner.