India on Thursday named eight Olympic debutants and as many veterans in its 16-member girls’s hockey squad for the Tokyo Games to be held from July 23 to August 8.
The squad is an ideal mixture of youth and expertise and contains as many as eight gamers who had represented India within the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The staff shall be captained by star striker Rani Rampal within the quadrennial Games.
The eight Olympic debutants embody drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur, Udita, Nisha, Neha, Navneet Kaur, Sharmila Devi, Lalremsiami, the primary participant hailing from Mizoram within the staff, and Salima Tete.
Good mixture of Experienced Players + New Talent = 𝗘 𝗫 𝗖 𝗘 𝗟 𝗟 𝗘 𝗡 𝗖 𝗘
Here are the gamers who will symbolize 🇮🇳 at #Tokyo2020 👉 https://t.co/zz7uvm25ke
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Tete had led the Indian staff on the 2018 Youth Olympic Games at Buenos Aires to a silver medal efficiency.
The eight skilled gamers, who had been a part of the final Olympics, embody skipper Rani, goalkeeper Savita, Deep Grace Ekka, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Monika, Nikki Pradhan, Navjot Kaur and Vandana Katariya.
These eight gamers have amassed a complete expertise of 1,492 caps between them.
The chosen squad has only one goalkeeper in Savita, 4 defenders, six mid-fielders and 5 forwards.
This would be the Indian girls’s hockey staff’s third look on the Olympic Games and their second consecutive outing, with earlier appearances coming in 1980 and 2016.
Since Rio 2016, the ladies’s staff has been on a gradual rise and gained the Asian Champions Trophy that very same yr, the 2017 Asia Cup and silver medal on the 2018 Asian Games.
They additionally created historical past by coming into the quarterfinals of the 2018 Women’s World Cup for the primary time.
“This team has worked very hard over the last few years and has made progress consistently. There is a good mix of experienced players and new talent, which is excellent,” Indian girls’s hockey staff chief coach Sjoerd Marijne stated.
“We look forward to taking on the best in the world in Tokyo. This is a team with a lot of potential and drive which we hope to channelise our energies to give our best performance.”
The Indian girls’s hockey staff made historical past in 2016 Rio Games when it certified for the Olympics after 36 lengthy years.
The squad is at present making ready for the Games on the ongoing nationwide camp on the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre right here.
INDIA WOMEN SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS: SavitaDEFENDERS: Deep Grace Ekka, Nikki Pradhan, Gurjit Kaur, UditaMIDFIELDERS: Nisha, Neha, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Monika, Nanjot Kaur, Salima TeteFORWARDS: Rani, Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Vandana Katariya, Sharmila, Devi