Defending champions India to begin Women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2024 campaign against Malaysia
The Indian women’s hockey team is keen to begin their title defence against Malaysia at the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2024 on today.
Undeterred by two back-to-back defeats against Belgium and hosts Great Britain, India captain Harmanpreet Singh on Thrusday promised a much improved and structured performance by his side against Belgium in the second leg encounter of the FIH Hockey Pro League at the Lee Valley Stadium in London on Friday.
India will take on table-toppers Great Britain on Saturday. , “We are not letting the two losses last week play on our minds. We still have six more matches to play and we know that if we play to the structure and execute good finishes, we will be able to return to the top of the pool table.” the Indian captain opined
Though the men in blue lost 1-2 to Belgium in their first match played last week, and went down 2-4 against Great Britain they did have some takeaways from the two matches, explained Harmanpreet who achieved a new milestone of being the leading goal-scorer in the history of Pro League with 35 goals.
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“Both opponents play very different styles. While one (Belgium) plays zonal, the other (GB) plays man-to-man. But there were some takeaways from those two matches. Though we didn’t create that many field goals, we did get some good PCs. There are some areas we also worked on, in these past few days and focus will continue to be on defending well,” he said.
Vice-Captain Hardik Singh, leading the team’s charge in the midfield, also pointed to the efforts of newcomers in the squad. “I think after the Rourkela matches, there was a bit of a gap to play highly competitive matches. It will take some time particularly for the youngsters to settle in and make the right connections to score goals.”
“This is a big platform for youngsters like Sukhjeet, Karthi and even Abhishek who are playing in London for the first time and Sanjay also made a good debut. There are a lot of positives from the first two matches here which they will be working on to carry forward in the upcoming matches,” signed off the young midfielder.
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