FIH Women's World Cup 2022: "Each match in the group stage will be crucial" - Vandana Katariya

The Savita Punia-led Indian women's hockey team will kickstart their 2022 FIH Women's World Cup campaign against England on July 3. The Hockey World Cup will take place in the Netherlands and Spain from July 1 to 17.

Speaking about the World Cup, experienced Indian forward Vandana Katariya, who has represented the nation in over 250 matches, stressed the importance of focusing on one match at a time. The 30-year-old told PTI:

"Each match in the group stage will be crucial and we cannot take any team to be easy. The most important aspect for us is to be consistent in every single quarter and be the best we can without worrying too much about the opponent. This is something we have learned over the years and it has really worked for us."

She continued:

"We have played practice matches against Chile and Ireland. Both were very good as we were able to practice some tactical moves for the upcoming games and were able to get used to the field which is always easier when you train on it.

"We have one more training session and we are ready to go. It will be a very interesting and intense World Cup and I anticipate matches to be quite close as almost five to six teams on par with each other."

FIH Women's World Cup 2022: Indian women's team fixtures

The Indian women's hockey team have been placed alongside England, New Zealand and China in Pool B.

Here's the list of matches:

Match 1: India vs England

Date: July 3, 2022 Timings: 8:00 pm IST

Match 2: India vs China

Date: July 5, 2022 Timings: 8:00 pm IST

Match 3: India vs New Zealand

Date: July 7, 2022 Timings: 11:00 pm IST

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FIH Women's World Cup 2022: Streaming details

All the 2022 FIH Women's World Cup matches will be telecast live on Star Sports Select 2 and Star Sports Select 2 HD. Matches will also be available for live streaming on the Hotstar app.