KATHMANDU: Head coach Umesh Patwal and skipper Paras Khadka on Thursday picked up 35-member preliminary squad for the 13th South Asian Games slated for December 1-10 in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Skipper Khadka, Gyanendra Malla, Sharad Vesawkar, Basant Regmi, Raju Rizal, Jitendra Kumar Mukhiya, Pradeep Airee, Sunil Dhamala, Saurabh Khanal, Lalit Singh Bhandari, Bikram Sob, Ishan Pandey, Karan KC, Mahamad Asif Sheikh, Binod Bhandari, Sundeep Jora, Kushal Malla, Rit Gautam, Pawan Sarraf and Amit Shrestha are in the squad.

Likewise, Kishor Mahato, Md Arif Sheikh, Sushan Bhari, Anil Kumar Sah, Abinash Bohara, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi, Nandan Yadav, Rohit Kumar Paudel, Bhim Sharki, Kushal Bhurtel, Dipendra Singh Airee, Sompal Kami, Sagar Dhakal and Shahab Alam also got call up for the national team camp.

The regional sporting extravaganza, being held in Nepal for the third time, features 27 sports disciplines. The team will undergo close camp training in Kathmandu from September 1.