It has been reported that an 18-member junior Indian women hockey team, led by defender Sushila Chanu, today left to participate in the FIH Hockey World Cup which is supposed to be held at Monchengladbach in Germany from 27th July to 4th August.
Notably, India is placed in Pool-C along with Russia, New Zealand and Australia. The junior women team will commence their campaign against Australia on 27th July, New Zealand on 28th July and Russia on 30th July. All the matches are scheduled to be played at Warsteiner Hockey Park in Monchengaladbach.
It has emerged that the Indian team will be playing 4 warm-up games prior to their World Cup campaign. Particularly, the first warm-up game will be against Belgium on 17th July followed by Netherlands on 19th July, against South Africa on 21st July and Argentina on 24th July.
Prior to departing for the competition, the Indian team had a 2-month long preparatory camp at NIS in Patiala.
The squad consists of goalkeepers Bigan Soy and Sanarik Chanu. Defenders are captain Sushila Chanu, Pinky Devi, Namita Toppo, Deep Grace Ekka, Manjit Kaur, Monika and M. N Poonamma. Lilima Minz, Vandana Kataria, Navjot Kaur, Lily Chanu and Ritusha Arya are the midfielders. Vice-Captain Rani, Navneet Kaur, Poonam Rani and Anupa Barla will handle the forward side.
