New Delhi: Five players from Orissa – Deep Grace Ekka, Sunita Lakra, Rashmita Minz, Namita Toppo and Lilima Minz have found a place in the 18-member Indian women’s hockey team for the tour of Europe. The Indian eves will open their campaign against their Netherlands counterparts September 5. Forward Rani will lead the side while goalkeeper Savita will be her deputy.
In their previous outing at the Women’s Hockey World League Semifinal, the team lost to England in the quarterfinals and eventually ended the competition in eighth place. After that they lost a Test series to New Zealand.
“I wouldn’t say we dropped our performance after starting the year on a winning note. Our exposure against New Zealand was good despite the loses and we will be working on the mistakes we made in Johannesburg during the on-going camp in Bangalore,” Rani told reporters here Wednesday. “We need to be more consistent and the team are positively working towards achieving better results,” she added.
Meanwhile Coach Sjoerd Marijne stated that the Holland experience will throw open a bigger pool of players to choose from for the all-important 2017 Women’s Asia Cup in Japan.
“We will be experimenting new combinations in Holland and try out different variations in PC conversions and goalscoring. Mental training is another aspect we are focused on,” added the 43-year-old Dutch Coach.
The squad: (Goalkeepers): Savita, Rajani Etimarpu; (Defenders): Deep Grace Ekka, Gurjit Kaur, Navdeep Kaur, Sunita Lakra, Rashmita Minz; (Midfielders): Namita Toppo, Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Karishma Yadav, Lilima Minz, Neha Goyal; (Forwards): Rani, Poonam Rani, Vandana Katariya, Reena Khokhar and Lalremsiami.
Agencies
