Indian women's hockey team leaves for London to play in Vitality World Cup
An 18-member Indian women's hockey team, led by experienced forward Rani Rampal, today left for London to participate in the Vitality Hockey Women’s World Cup 2018 to be held there between 21 July and August 5. Immediately after the World Cup, the team will head for Jakarta for the 2018 Asian Games starting on August 18. This is the first time in eight years that the Indian Women’s Hockey Team will appear at the prestigious World Cup with no other player in the current squad apart from skipper Rani and Deepika have ever played at a World Cup before. “The team is extremely excited and we have waited for this moment ever since we won the Asia Cup last year. For almost everyone in the team, this will be a first-time experience to be playing at the World Cup,” says skipper Rani, brimming with confidence ahead of the team’s departure. Though this will be the first appearance at the quadrennial event for most of the Indian players, though many of them have more than 100 International Caps each to their credit. Their experience is an advantage feels Rani. She said, “It is a plus point for us that this team barring only three or four players have been playing together for over two years now and have had good international exposure with many of them having more than 100 or 150 plus International Caps for India. Every player in the team has grown from strength to strength and I am confident we will do well at the Vitality Hockey Women’s World Cup London 2018.” The Indian team is grouped in Pool B with Olympic Champions England, World No.7 USA and Ireland. In their first match on July 21, the Indian team will take on hosts England. Having beaten the team who are ranked World. No 2 at the recent Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Rani believes the "pressure will be on the hosts when they meet us on the opening day. The pressure is not on us but it will be on England because they know we are capable of doing well against them. Though they defeated us in the bronze medal match at the CWG as we made some silly errors. The Indian team is no longer the underdogs and in our mind, we want to get off to a good start regardless of England having home support and advantage,” stated an assertive Rani.
