Buoyed by their unimaginable efficiency on the Tokyo Olympics, the Indian males’s girls’s hockey groups will likely be aiming to finish the Australian dominance within the sport of hockey at this 12 months’s Commonwealth Video games.
Australia have been essentially the most profitable in hockey because the sport was launched 24 years in the past. The Australian males’s staff have gained all of the six gold medals until now on the occasion.
Nevertheless, India, led by Manpreet Singh, do really feel like they’ll finish Australia’s stronghold over the game this time round. The Indian staff ended their 41-year await a medal within the sport on the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and have been continuously enhancing beneath head coach, Graham Reid.
The staff additionally completed third within the FIH Professional League and will likely be trying to go one higher than their greatest efficiency in 2010 the place they gained the Silver medal.
Manpreet Singh, who led the Indian staff to a historic Bronze medal on the Olympic Video games in Tokyo final 12 months, captains the 18-member Indian Males’s Hockey Group for the celebrated Commonwealth Video games, which start on July twenty ninth in Birmingham. https://t.co/TZThrtDhq6
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) June 20, 2022
Talking forward of the event, Reid and Singh stated that they’d not be weighed down by the followers’ expectations of a medal. The Indian skipper stated that the staff will purpose to do their greatest in each single recreation and their last objective is to safe a podium end
“Sure, we all know that followers have expectations from us that we are going to win a medal right here. We mentioned the identical earlier than arriving right here that if our focus is on successful a medal, we’ll ultimately be victorious in our efforts however we have to work on it first. We wish to do our greatest in each single recreation, we aren’t going to take any staff flippantly and sure our last objective is to win a medal right here,” stated Singh.
The Indian girls’s staff can even fancy their possibilities however might want to put behind their poor outing within the recently-concluded World Cup. India completed ninth on the occasion and will likely be searching for an improved efficiency in Birmingham.
Australia do rule the roost on the ladies’s aspect as properly with regards to hockey, as they’ve gained 4 gold medals. India’s greatest efficiency was in 2002, once they completed on the highest step of the rostrum.
Each groups will likely be banking on their penalty nook specialists and forwards for the objectives. The boys’s staff have a robust lineup with regards to drag flicks, with vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh main the road.
PC conversion was a problem for the ladies’s staff on the World Cup and head coach Janeke Schopman will likely be banking on Gurjit Kaur to be extra exact with drag flicks through the CWG.
An 18-member Indian Girls’s #Hockey Group has been named for the Commonwealth Video games 2022 to be held at Birmingham.#Odisha‘s Deep Grace Ekka has retained her place within the staff and has additionally been named the vice-captain. The staff will likely be led by @savitahockey.
Finest needs pic.twitter.com/0ogS6JdyhK
— Odisha Sports activities (@sports_odisha) June 23, 2022
Shot stopping would be the strongest card for each groups, with PR Sreejesh and Savita Punia defending the objective. Punia, particularly, has been in unimaginable type through the World Cup and would be the captain for the event.
The Girls’s staff will open their marketing campaign on twenty ninth July in opposition to Ghana and the boys’s staff will face the identical opponents of their opener on the thirty first of July.
With higher execution of plans and higher conversion of PCs, one can anticipate each groups to offer a robust push for gold and finish the Australian dominance on the Commonwealth Video games.
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