Indian junior women's hockey squad announced for Asia Cup
Hockey India announced the Indian junior women’s hockey squad for the upcoming 7th Junior Women’s Asia Cup. The tournament will commence on September 5th in Changzhou, China and the final will be played on September 13th.
The young Indian side is placed in Pool A, and will be tested against the likes of China, Malaysia, Singapore and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Thailand, Chinese-Taipei, South Korea and Japan complete the other group.
The winners of the tournament will qualify for the 2016 Junior Women’s World Cup.
The head coach of the team, Baljeet Saini, ensured that the team is confident enough to take on the other big teams in the tournament. He believes that the team is determined to better their third position finish at the recently concluded Volvo U-21 Invitational Tournament.
“The team looks confident ahead of the upcoming tournament. They are very much determined post their third place finish at the U-21 Volvo Invitational tournament and the team will aim for a win in the Junior Women Asia Cup,” he told Hockey India.
He also ensured that the team is working on various aspects of their game, like putting pressure on opponents from the opening whistle and scoring that all-important first goal.
The team will be lead by prolific striker Rani Rampal, under whose leadership the team finished 3rd at the Volvo U-21 Invitational Tournament. She believes that the team is in a much better shape at the moment and can trouble the likes of big teams as China and Korea.
She said, “The team is in good shape and the preparatory camp has been helping us to improve our game each day.We are optimistic after our recent third place finish at the U-21 Volvo Invitational tournament and focusing on our strategies and working on rectifying our mistakes so that we come out as a strong unit.”
The 21-year-old player was hopeful of a good show at the Junior Asia Cup and qualify for the upcoming Junior World Cup.
SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Inderpreet Kaur, Sheweta
Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Gurjit Kaur, Jaspreet Kaur, Manjit Kaur, Rashmita Minz
Midfielders: M. Lily Chanu, Lilima Minz, Navjot Kaur (Vice Captain), Renuka Yadav, Preeti Dubey
Forwards: Anupa Barla, Rani (Captain), Punam Barla, Navneet Kaur, Sonika