Hockey India Announces 25 Probables For Senior Women National Camp

The camp will be focused around fitness, ball-handling, structure and strategies among other key areas.

Hockey India has announced 25 members for the upcoming senior women national camp to be held in Bengaluru from Monday.  The training and condition camp that runs for 27 days has been organised to prepare the team for the 6th Women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2020 in June and the Tokyo Olympics in July-August.

The camp will be focused around fitness, ball-handling, structure and strategies, along with working on key areas which were identified from their recent tour of New Zealand.

Chief coach Sjoerd Marijne says fitness will take priority as there’s some time before the important meaning they can push the players harder in the training sessions. “With the knowledge of the previous tour of New Zealand, we have identified some areas where we need to improve, and we will have the chance to fine-tune on these areas,” Marijne said. “It is an important phase in our preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, and so the upcoming camp will be focused on the fitness because this is the moment where we can build, and have extra load in our training sessions.”

2019 was a fruitful year for India, which saw them produce impressive performances including winning the FIH Women’s Series Finals Hiroshima, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Test Event in Japan, and the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Odisha, along with victories on their tours of Spain, Malaysia, Republic of Korea and England.

With their eyes set on the big tournaments in 2020, they began the new year with a tour of New Zealand where they played in four matches against the World No. 7 side, along with one match against Great Britain.

The core Probables group includes goalkeepers Savita, Rajani Etimarpu, Bichu Devi Kharibam, defenders Deep Grace Ekka, Reena Khokhar, Salima Tete, Manpreet Kaur, Gurjit Kaur, and Nisha.

Among midfielders, Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Neha Goyal, Lilima Minz, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Sonika and Namita Toppo have received a call-up. Forwards Rani, Lalremsiami, Vandana Katariya, Navjot Kaur, Navneet Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Jyoti, Sharmila Devi and Udita have also made the national camp.

Core Probables

Goalkeepers: Savita, Rajani Etimarpu, Bichu Devi Kharibam

Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Reena Khokhar, Salima Tete, Manpreet Kaur, Gurjit Kaur, Nisha

Midfielders: Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Neha Goyal, Lilima Minz, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Sonika, Namita Toppo

Forwards: Rani, Lalremsiami, Vandana Katariya, Navjot Kaur, Navneet Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Jyoti, Sharmila Devi, Udita