New Delhi, 26 April (Hindustan Times). The Indian women’s hockey team will tour Australia for a five-match series, which begins on May 18 and ends on May 27. India will play Australia in the first three matches of the series, followed by two matches against Australia A. All matches will be played at the Met Stadium in Adelaide.
The Indian team will face the Australian team on 18, 20 and 21 May. After this, the Indian team will play against Australia A on 25 and 27 May. The Australian women’s hockey team is currently ranked third in the world, while the Indian team is ranked eighth.
The tour will serve as a warm-up event for the Hangzhou Asian Games to be held in September-October this year. Talking about the same, Indian women’s hockey team head coach Janke Schoepmann said, “Playing against Australia in Australia will help us assess where we stand in comparison to the top ranked team in women’s hockey. More importantly, this series will be important for our preparations for the Asian Games in China as it will let us know the areas where we need to improve and make changes. So strategically it will be very important for us. Important visit.”
Having won the FIH Women’s Nations Cup in December 2022 by defeating hosts Spain in the final, the Indian team will tour Australia with a lot of confidence. Also, in January 2023, India toured South Africa, where they faced the hosts in four matches and registered comprehensive wins of 5–1, 7–0 and 4–0 in the first three matches, while the fourth match The draw was 2-2. However, during the same tour, the Indian side had suffered 1-3 defeats at the hands of the Netherlands in their last three matches.
Also, the Indian women’s hockey team defeated three-time Olympic gold medalists Australia 1-0 in the semi-finals of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. It was a historic victory for India as they were competing in only their third Olympics, while the Australian team was a three-time gold medallist.
India also fought hard against Australia in the semi-final match of the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, with the score tied at 1-1. However, Australia won the penalty shoot-out 3–0 to book a place in the final.
Currently, Indian women’s hockey team players are gearing up for the tour of Australia by working hard to further hone their strategies and combinations at the ongoing Senior Women’s National Coaching Camp at SAI, Bengaluru.
