The India women’s hockey team will begin their campaign against England on July 3 in a Pool B match of the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2022 in Spain and the Netherlands, starting on July 1.
India will next face China on July 5 and New Zealand on July 7.
India women’s team halfback Sushila Chanu, while addressing the media in a virtual press conference, said that the sequence of matches does not change how the team will prepare for the tournament.
“It doesn’t matter which opponents we launch our campaign against. Sushila Chanu said, “We are not afraid of which team we face first as our mindset and our mindset is to take every match and try to win every match.
“We have recently faced China in the Women’s Hockey Asia Cup 2022 and FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22, in Muscat, Oman. And so that would be an advantage for us. We will play the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 match against England next month. We last played against New Zealand in 2020. So we are well aware of all these teams and we know how to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.”
India took on the Spain women’s hockey team in a two-legged match at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar last weekend. While India won the first match 2-1, Spain won the second match 4-3. India’s forward Navneet Kaur also spoke about how the team has gained confidence in the past few years by facing consistently high-ranked opponents.
“Around 2-3 years ago, facing strong opponents used to be a concern in the team. But now there is no fear in our team and we feel that we are ready to face every challenge. Even if an opponent scores the first goal, we know we have the ability and skill to turn things back in our favour,” Navneet said.
“Our team has developed a fighting spirit over the years. It has worked out really well for us,” she said.
India will next play a double-header against Germany in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 on March 12 and March 13. When asked about the preparation for the upcoming games, Navneet said, “We have faced against Germany last year. So, we will definitely take a look at the videos of those matches to identify what are our strong areas, and what areas we need to improve upon when we face them again.”
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