Three days after beating China to bag an Asia Cup 2022 bronze, the Indian women’s team will square off against the World No.13 side in their first-ever FIH Pro League encounter at the Sultan Qaboos Complex in Muscat on Monday. (More Hockey News)
With Australia and New Zealand pulling out from the FIH Pro League 2021-22 due to travel restrictions, India and Spain were added to the competition for the fir♐st time. India women didn’t compete in the 2019 and 2020-21 editions.
India will be playing two matches against China on January 31 and February 1 in FIH Hockey Pro League 2021-💞22 before hosting reigning champions the Netherlands at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhಞubaneswar on February 19 and 20. The matches start at 4:30 PM IST.
Thﷺe India vs China matches will be live telecast on channels Star Sports Select 2 and Star Sporꩲts Select 2 HD. Disney+ Hotstar will live stream the games from 4:30 PM IST. The tournament runs till the end of June 2022.
India will be playing the same team that won Asia Cup 2022 bronze, which means regular captain Rani Rampal missing the action once again as she is recovering from an injury. Savita Punia will continue to lead൲ the side in the FIH Ho🥃ckey Pro League 2022 matches against China.
India head coach Janneke Schopman said that they are excited to start their FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 campaign against a strong China team. “We are excited to start 🅠our Pro League campaign and look to build on our performance in the Asia Cup by hopefully creating and converting our opportuniti🐼es as well as having a clinical defense," Schopman said.
“China has shown to🐈 be a good team here in the Asia Cup. While they did not finish in the to𒆙p three, their game stats show that they were even to all top 3 teams,” she added. India will be once again looking up to the likes of Gurjit Kaur, Vandana Katariya and Sharmila Devi, who have been among goals in the Asia Cup 2022.
While Gurjit finished India’s top scorer with four goals, Vandana and Sharmila netted three each among the 24 scored by India in five games at the Asia Cup 2022. In the Asia Cup semifinals, India lost to♐ South Korea while China were undone by eventual champions Japan.
IND Vs CHN Head-To-Head
Ind🌞ia enjoy a 7-5 record against China in 13 appearances both teams have faced each other since 2013. Only one game ended in a draw. In these 13 games, India found the back of the net 22 times compared to China’s 18.
India’s squad:
ཧGoalkeepers: Savita (C), Rajani Etജimarpu; Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka (VC), Gurjit Kaur, Nikki Pradhan, Udita; Midfielders: Nisha, Sushila Chanu, Monika, Neha, Salima Tete, Jyoti, Navjot Kaur; Forwards: Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Vandana Katariya, Mariana Kujur, Sharmila Devi
