The core probables of the Indian Hockey team for the men’s and women’s team, Junior Women, India ‘A’ Men and India ‘A’ Women – will return to the National Coaching Camp at the SAI Centre in Bengaluru. The Indian Women’s team have already joined the camp from 24th of April, the others will join a day later.
After a great FIH Hockey Pro League campaign at home, the Indian Eves are currently at the top of the points table. However Hockey India have already announced the preparation plans for the Indian Women’s team for their upcoming FIH Hockey Pro League matches and also the Women’s Hockey World Cup 2022, scheduled to start in July. The Indian Eves will be up against some of the top teams like Belgium, Argentina and USA in their remaining Pro League games before the set sails for the World Cup will will take place in Spain and the Netherlands.
Head coach Janneke Schopman has picked a 36-member team of probables and will choose the final list from these players. The probables have a great mix of youth and experience that has always been the essence of the Indian women’s team. While there are experienced stars like Savita Punia, Navjot Kaur, Gurjit Kaur, Deep grace Ekka, there are also youngsters in Lalremsiami, Bichu Devi Kharibam, Ishika Chaudhary, Sharmila Devi and Salima Tete. The youngsters were part of the Indian junior Women’s team that finished fourth in the Junior World Cup.
Schopman believes that the team is ready to enter the final preparations for the upcoming matches. She feels that the team understands the area where they lack and where need to put more effort to improve.
Just like the women’s team the Indian Men’s team are also leading the current FIH Hockey Pro League standings. They have an eight points lead over second placed Argentina. However, the Netherlands have a great possibility of taking away the lead as they have only played six matches and have already earned 16 points. However for now, the Indian men’s hockey will prepare for the upcoming matches against Belgium and the Netherlands and also for the upcoming Asia Cup.
“We had a good two weeks break after a hectic start to the season with Pro League matches. It’s good to finish on top of the table after the home games, but we still have a task at hand when we play top teams in our away matches. We will be working on the areas we have recognised following these past few matches. The camp in Bengaluru will be an ideal place to revisit our performance and plan the things we need to work on ahead of the all-important Asian Games 2022,” stated Indian Men’s Team Chief Coach Graham Reid.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Indian hockey teams as both have some tough fixtures in front of them but they have a great squad to pass those tests with flying colours.
