Ritu Rani is supposed to spearhead the Indian women hockey team in the FIH Women’s Hockey World League Round 3 in which the Semi-Finals are scheduled to be played at Rotterdam in The Netherlands from 13th to 23rd June 2013. On the other side, midfielder Chanchan Devi will be the vice-captain of the team.
Indian hockey selectors B P Govinda and Col. Balbir Singh, Director of High Performance Roelant Oltmans and Chief Coach Neil Hawgood along with Government Observer Harbinder Singh shortlisted 18 players during the meeting held on 17th May.
In fact, the senior women team camp is presently in progress and started at NIS, Patiala on 12th May as final preparations for this event. The team is supposed to depart for Rotterdam on 5th June 2013. They will play the opening match against New Zealand on 13th June 2013.
The Indian squad has qualified for the FIH Women World League Round 3 Semi-Finals in February 2013 by winning the World League Round 2 tournament in Delhi. To be precise, the FIH World League is a qualification tournament for the FIH Women’s World Cup 2014 to be played in The Hague, The Netherlands from 31st May to 14th June in 2014.
India is included in Pool B with New Zealand, Belgium and Germany while hosts The Netherlands, Japan, Korea and Chile are included in Pool A.
The 18 players who are shortlisted are Goalkeepers Savita and Rajni Etimarpu, defenders Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Sunita Lakra, Kirandeep Kaur, Sushila Chanu, Manjeet Kaur, midfielders Ritu Rani (Captain), Chanchan Devi (Vice-Captain), Vandana Katariya, Navjot Kaur, Lily Chanu, forwards include Anupa Barla, Roselin Dung Dung, Ritusha Arya, Poonam Rani and Lilima Minz.
