Indian hockey has received a lot of attention since the men’s hockey team won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Tokyo while the women finished fourth. The Indian junior women will try to build on that when they begin their campaign at the FIH Women’s Junior World Cup, which began on Wednesday in Santiago, Chile. The team, led by Preeti, will eye for the gold medal in what is their sixth appearance in the competition’s tenth edition.
In the 16-team event, India is in a difficult pool. The bronze medalists from 2013 are in Group C, alongside previous edition runners-up Germany, Belgium, and Canada. Each of the four pools’ top two teams will advance to the quarterfinals. India, ranked sixth in the world, will play the matches with confidence after winning the Junior Asia Cup in Kakamigahara, Japan, in June.
India registered a dominating 12-0 win in their World Cup opener against Canada. Hat-trick from Annu, Mumtaz Khan, and Deepika Soreng powered India to crush Canada and bag all three points. The result will help them when they face first-time champions and two-time runners-up Germany in a late-night match on November 30, Thursday.
However, India’s coach Tushar Khandker warned that the team cannot afford to be complacent. In a World Cup all teams have to be treated equally. The approach is simple: break down the competition game wise and take it forward from there, the 2012 London Olympian said. The squad, which fell to England in the bronze medal playoff in the last edition, enters with high hopes of winning their first title, but Khandker has made certain that expectations do not weigh them down.
Having played at the highest level, I know what pressure and expectations can do to the best players. So, I’ve ensured all the noise about medals has been cut out. Instead, I’ve told the girls to go out there and play good hockey and enjoy their game. It is important for the girls to play freely as a team. This is the biggest platform at this level, so the focus is on giving the best account of themselves, Khandker expressed.
One of the important topics Khandker concentrated on in the lead-up to the competition was communication. The message to the players is unequivocal. On the pitch, they must take individual responsibilities and communicate with one another, he concluded.
