Indian women’s team will hope to ride on their triumph at home in Hockey World league Round 2 in March when they head to Antwerp, Belgium for the semi-finals stage.
Currently training in Delhi’s searing heat at Major Dhyan Chand Stadium under Dutchman Mathias Ahrens, the team has quite a task ahead of them. Placed in Pool B for the tournament alongside heavyweights Australia, New Zealand, Poland and hosts Belgium, India eves will need to be on top of their game if they harbour any hopes of qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Speaking on Thursday, Ahrens highlighted they’re in the final stages of preparation for the tournament and the focus is on fine-tuning penalty corners, long corners and set pieces. He also mentioned the need for the team to get better physically and improve with their speed. This was agreed to by captain Ritu Rani who stated that the Indian team is better than others in skills but not in terms of speed and endurance.
Asked about the strategy that the team plans to deploy and has been working on, Ahrens said, “We’ve covered several areas on the pitch. Our counter-attacking is much better, our defence during counter attacks has improved drastically. I would say we are on track.”
When queried about the team’s chances in the tournament, Ahrens stayed diplomatically optimistic. But given the team would be facing World No 2 (Australia), World No 4 (New Zealand), World No 12 (Belgium) and a relatively weak Poland as the only solace, India should realistically hope for a finish in the sixth or seventh place.
Three teams automatically qualify from the Belgium leg of the tournament while three other places will come from the other Round 3 competition in Valencia, Spain and rest from respective continental champions of Asia, Europe, Oceania, America and Africa.
Deepika injured, no Plan B
The biggest concern, however, for Ahrens is the injury to star player Deepika, who picked up a hamstring injury during training last week. On Thursday, too, she had her left knee heavily strapped and only engaged in light warm-up exercises.
Ahrens stayed positive that she would recover in time before the team leaves for Belgium on June 11. He said that he considered a plan B for in case Deepika fails to recover but didn’t want to think about such a situation. “In our mind sure we have a plan B but we’re not thinking about it. We can’t leave a player like Deepika behind, it is unthinkable. So, I think a Plan B in this is not practical. We’d get her back,” he said.