The Indian women’s hockey team for the Tokyo Olympics was announced on Thursday with coach Sjoerd Marijne sticking to a largely tried-and-tested mix of youth and experience.
The 16-member Rani Rampal-led side has a core group that has been together for more than three years now. While eight of the players were part of India’s previous outing in 2016 at Rio Olympics, 12 of them participated at the 2018 World Cup, where India reached the last-eight and the Asian Games, finishing runner-up.
Besides Rani, others from the Rio squad include Savita Punia, Deep Grace Ekka, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Monika, Nikki Pradhan, Navjot Kaur and Vandana Katariya, with a total of 1,492 caps between them.
“This team has worked very hard over the last few years and has made progress consistently. There’s a good mix of experienced players and new talent, which is excellent,” ,” chief coach Marijne said.
“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 to our best performance yet,” he added.
This will only be the ninth-ranked team’s third Olympic appearance and second consecutive one.
The squad: Goalkeeper: Savita; Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Nikki Pradhan, Gurjit Kaur, Udita; Midfielders: Nisha, Neha Goyal, Sushila Chanu, Monika, Navjot Kaur, Salima Tete; Forwards: Rani Rampal, Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Vandana Katariya, Sharmila Devi.
