Indian Women's Hockey Team reach Muscat ahead of Asia Cup 2022

The Indian Women's Hockey Team reached Muscat, Oman ahead of the Women's Asia Cup 2022. The hockey tournament is slated to take place from January 21-28 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat.

Eight hockey teams will be in the fray to battle it out for the title. India will compete against China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

Team India will kickstart their Asia Cup campaign against Malaysia on January 21, 2022.

The Asia Cup will be a crucial tournament for all the teams that are participating in the tournament. The top four teams will qualify for the 2022 FIH Women's Hockey World Cup to be held in Spain and the Netherlands later this year.

The Indian team will enter the quadrennial tournament aiming to defend their title. However, the team's prime objective will be to qualify for the World Cup later in 2022.

Skipper Savita Punia and Indian hockey team is prepared for challenges:

Savita Punia is all set to lead the team in Muscat in the absence of regular skipper Rani Rampal. Rani is currently undergoing rehabilitation.

Skipper and goalkeeper Savita, on being asked regarding the team's preparation, asserted that the team's main focus is working on themselves and their strengths.

"Our main focus will always be on ourselves. We have seen videos of recent matches of Malaysia Japan, Korea, China, and other teams and we have prepared for them. But every team has their strengths and weaknesses and hence, we aim to focus on ourselves."

Savita added;

"We have to ensure we remain strong when taking and defending penalty corners. When we play attacking hockey, we must ensure we also remain tight on defence. If we focus on our strengths, then the opposition will themselves find it difficult to challenge us."

Savita also stressed the importance of competing at the Asia Cup. This will be the team's first major competition this year. She also stated that participating in the tournament will boost their confidence ahead of the upcoming major challenges lined up this year.

Savita said:

"This tournament is very important for us as we have trained really hard and worked on several aspects of the game in the past few months. We are waiting to play in the matches so that we can showcase what we are practicing and gain confidence."