No matter how much ‘all is well feeling’ is put forth by the coaching staff of the Indian senior women’s hockey team, there aren’t too many positives to take from its performance at the recently-concluded Hawke’s Bay Cup Hockey Tournament in New Zealand.
The showing displayed by the Indian eves left a lot to be desired. The national hockey selectors decided to rest regular captain Ritu Rani for the Hawke’s Bay Cup – a move that did not appear to be a bad move at all considering that she needs to be preserved for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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The captaincy responsibility was foisted on the shoulders of seasoned fullback Deepika Thakur, who to be fair to her, tried to get everyone together.
The performance of the women’s team was a far cry from their participation in the 2015 edition, where they fought tooth and nail, even holding mighty Australia 1-1 and only narrowly losing 1-2 to China. Of course, India finished sixth unlike the seventh position last year but the point is the national side really brought their best to the fore in the 2015 edition but their efforts in the 2016 edition cannot be termed as ideal preparations for the Rio Olympics.
If the team showed that it really missed Ritu Rani in New Zealand, then it is not a good augury either as no team preparing for the Olympics, can ill-afford to bank on one or two individuals.
One felt that the team still had plenty of strength in their ranks even sans Ritu Rani as the likes of Rani Rampal, Poonam Rani, Vandana Kataria, Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Sushila Chanu and skipper Deepika Thakur have a fair amount of experience and have been playing together for a long haul.
One is not sure if the change of guard – drama of Neil Hawgood being first appointed assistant coach and then head coach with his predecessor Mathias Ahrens quitting after he was told to be head coach and later to be a deputy to Hawgood – dented the morale of the girls. Such tinkering close to the Olympics is not advisable.
India have a formidable attacking line-up comprising the two Ranis – Rampal and Poonam besides Vandana Kataria. The forward-line was a big flop in New Zealand as the girls struggled to scoring just five goals and managing just one win in six games.
In fact, the girls were winless for the first four games. And as if to rub salt to our wounds, Rani sustained an ankle injury in the concluding classification tie against Ireland, which they lost to Ireland in a shootout.
Indian eves have qualified for the Rio Olympics after a gap of 36 years – but their Olympic preparations look far from ideal. The Hawke’s Bay Cup test should be a wake-up call for Neil Hawgood and his girls to step up their intensity so that they don’t look like the whipping girls in Rio.
