The 2022 Commonwealth Games get underway on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Indian women's hockey team will look to draw inspiration from Tokyo Olympics to end the medal drought.
With a podium finish on the mind, the Indian women's hockey team would aim to bury the ghosts of a catastrophic 2022 World Cup crusade as it would look to steam-roll minnow Ghana in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 opener on Thursday. The Indian women have been clubbed in Pool A alongside hosts England, Canada, Wales and Ghana. In contrast, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Scotland and Kenya would compete in Pool B. Like their male counterparts, the Indian women had to come back empty-handed from the previous edition of the CWG in Gold Coast in 2018, as they finished fourth after England rout them 0-6 in the bronze medal play-off.
Heading into the CWG, the Indian women must be haunted by their disastrous effort in the recently-concluded World Cup in Spain and the Netherlands. The Savita Punia-led side finished ninth, which is disappointing, as the Janneke Schopman-guided side would be desperate to prove it is a way better side than the recent results indicate. It would be desperate to prove its nitpickers wrong about the perception that a historic fourth-place finish in the Tokyo Olympics last year was a sheer coincidence.
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The Indian women would also hope to break their 16-year medal drought at the CWG here. India's last medal (silver) in CWG came during the 2006 edition in Melbourne. The only other medal that the Indian women bagged at these Games since hockey was introduced in 1998 was gold in Manchester in 2002.
Besides the brilliant Olympic campaign, the Indians would be boosted by their creditable third-place finish at their maiden Pro League trek this season. But, to finish on the podium, the ninth-ranked Indians will have to get past world No.3 Australia, fifth-ranked England and world No. 8 New Zealand, who also happen to be strong medal contenders.
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In the last edition of the CWG, New Zealand won the gold ahead of Australia, and the Trans-Tasman rivals would again fancy their chances in this CWG as well. Australia has dominated women's hockey in CWG, bagging four gold medals to date, along with a silver and a bronze. While India is expected to have a cakewalk in opening two pool games against world No. 30 Ghana and world No. 24 Wales, Savita's side will face its first real challenge against England on August 2, finishing its pool campaign against 15th-ranked Canada.
While the top two teams from each pool progress into the semis, India and England are absolute favourites from Pool A unless something harsh transpires. But, the recent World Cup has brought to light some issues in India's arsenal, which it needs to address quickly. For the Indian women, while penalty corner conversions remain a significant concern, the forward line also needs to ante up.
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In the recent World Cup, the Indians created plenty of scoring chances from open play and penalty corners, only to blow up most of the opportunities. Coach Schopman would expect a much-improved show from her forwards, mostly drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur. In the other Pool A match of the day, Canada will be playing Wales.
(With inputs from PTI)