India ready for Hockey World League challenge: Women's team captain Ritu Rani

Ritu Rani

Indian women’s hockey team captain Ritu Rani previewed the Hockey World League (HWL) semi-final after an intense training session in Antwerp, Belgium. She touched on a variety of topics from the mistakes in the warm-up matches to the previous tournaments and new strategies.

Under the guidance of coach Mathias Ahrens, the Indian team is looking to qualify for the Olympics by finishing in the top 3 of the HWL semis.

The 23-year old revealed that coach Ahrens has helped the team try out various new strategies and talked about the importance of the HWL.

“The FIH Hockey World League semi-final is very important for our team. After the Incheon Asian Games, we have been preparing for this tournament and we have tried out various new strategies as well as team combinations in the Hawke’s Bay Cup and our preparatory camps and practice matches,” Ritu Rani said.

“We are improving step by step”

India lost 2-0 to Japan in the warm-up match. Talking about the mistakes the team made in the match, she said that India are improving and rectifying their errors step by step.

She admitted, “In the match against Japan, we learnt new aspects of our team combinations and we are working on our mistakes. Our team is improving step by step and rectifying our issues with a planned manner.”

“There are higher-ranked teams in the tournament, but we will focus on each match separately by keeping aside the FIH World rankings,” said Rani talking about the opponents the team will face at the upcoming Olympic qualifying tournament.

She said that the team would be looking to stick to the plan and implement strategies on the field.

“Our attention would be implementing the strategies on the field and play according to our plans. We are expecting a positive result from our opening match and we are ready for the challenge,” she concluded.

India face Belgium in their opening match of the tournament on 20^th June.