India women's hockey team using south to go north

CHENNAI: When the India women’s hockey team announced the squad for their tour of South Korea on Friday, veteran goalkeeper Savita Punia was missing from the contingent. Slated from March 3 to 12, their itinerary includes five matches against the hosts at the Jinchun National Athletic Centre in Jinchun.
Hockey India stated that she had been rested, and named Swati — who will be featuring in her first tour — and Rajani Etimarpu as the team’s custodian options.

Considering that this is their season opener and also an important tournament before the Commonwealth Games in April, one may wonder why Punia wasn’t a part of the team. The last tournament that India played was the Asia Cup, in last November. Both captain Rani Rampal and coach Harendra Singh had an explanation ready at hand. “We wanted to give more chances to youngsters, and provide them international exposure ahead of a big year.”

Harendra remarked that the tour was about finding their strengths and weaknesses; not just for CWG, but for all the mega-events — Asian Champions Trophy (April) and the World Cup (July) — that lay ahead.
“These kinds of events — two-nation or three-nation — gives us the flexibility to experiment ahead of any major event. Our squad has a good mix of experience and youth.

“We don’t want to settle with just Plan A. We want to field the best team before heading to CWG. This is the perfect occasion for testing a few players and seeing how those combinations work. There are certain technical areas that we might examine as well.”

Apart from working out potential permutations, India are also looking at a more-macroscopic focus as compared to what they had during the Asia Cup. It’s no more about the coach emphasising the need for converting penalty-corners, for they now feel the need to put in place an encompassing technical scaffolding.  

“Modern hockey demands more speed and agility. But at the same time, we need a structure that dictates attack and defence. That’s what we’re really looking at,” explained Harendra. “We have to score more without giving much room to opponents. We have to figure out ways on how to spot opponents from scoring. Now, it’s not only about scoring more goals.”

In this regard, the rigour that the team invested during their recent one-week camp seems to have paid dividends. Rani stated that their team’s fitness has witnessed an upswing, crediting their South African scientific advisor Wayne Lombard for their progress.  

“He is a very knowledgeable person, and he makes sure that every player gets a balanced workload. If I am given extra hours of strength-training, he sees to it that the next day is lighter, so that I don’t end up pulling any muscle. I believe this has improved our agility.”

After reading all this, it may look like India have ticked all boxes for the tour. But, going by Rani’s words, there is one factor that still needs to be worked on: mental toughness.“The girls have to start believing that they can beat any opponent. Many are not that confident. They should be optimistic, both as an individual and as a team. The rest will fall in place.”  

Squad:

Goalkeepers
Rajani Etimarpu
Swati

Defenders
Deepika
Sunita Lakra (VC)
Deep Grace Ekka
Suman Devi Thoudam
Gurjit Kaur
Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam
Midfielders
Monika
Namita Toppo
Nikki Pradhan
Neha Goyal
Lilima Minz
Udita

Forwards
Rani Rampal (C)
Vandana Katariya
Lalremsiami
Navjot Kaur
Navneet Kaur
Poonam Rani

srinidhi@newindianexpress.com