Rajgir
Riding high on two consecutive wins, the Indian women’s hockey team is set to take on Thailand in the Asian Champions Trophy today. With hopes of improving their goal difference, India looks to fine-tune their play and secure a decisive victory.
India, along with Olympic silver medalists China, remains unbeaten after two games. However, China leads the standings with a strong goal difference of 20, compared to India’s five. A large-margin win over Thailand would boost India’s position as they prepare for tougher matches against China and Japan in the final round-robin stage. Currently, Japan ranks third in the standings, with Korea following closely behind. The tournament’s top four teams will advance to the semifinals.
In their previous games, India won 4-0 against Malaysia and 3-2 against South Korea, but the team has struggled with missed scoring opportunities. Indian coach Harendra Singh acknowledged that players were rushing their shots and making poor decisions in the scoring circle. ‘We could have scored more goals. We were guilty of rushing and not making the right choices,’ he said, highlighting the need to review game footage and address these issues.
India’s penalty corner conversion has also been a concern. Despite securing 11 penalty corners against Malaysia, only three were converted, and none directly. Against Korea, India failed to score from eight set-piece opportunities.
