Indian women’s hockey team to test Asian Games preparations against Australia

The Indian women’s hockey team will be looking to put in their best performance as they begin their Asian Games preparations against world number three Australia on a five-match tour starting here on Thursday. The Indian team will play the first three matches against the senior Australian team on May 18, 20 and 21. The team will then face Australia ‘A’ on May 25 and 27. The eighth-ranked team, led by experienced goalkeeper Savita, will look to judge themselves in this round.

The team will get to know from this tour which areas need to be improved for the Hangzhou Asian Games to be held from September 23 to October 8 this year. The Asian Games will give the team a chance to qualify directly for the Paris Olympics. The Indian team had reached Adelaide four days in advance to acclimatise with the local conditions. Savita said, “We are also practicing daily in the evening under floodlights so that the team can get familiar with the ground and conditions in Adelaide as our matches are going to be held in the evening.”

The Indian women’s team defeated the three-time gold medalist team 1-0 in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics. The two teams will then face each other in the semi-finals of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The match at the Birmingham Games was drawn to a penalty shootout, which Australia won. Indian team head coach Yanek Schopman said, “The players are upbeat and ready to face Australia. The weather here is very nice. We are feeling fine. Ready to take stock of all the hard work we’ve put in over the past few weeks.

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