Bengaluru: The Indian women’s hockey team left for Korea on Tuesday to compete in the Asian Champions Trophy, which begins on December 5 in Donghae. It will be the Indian team’s first event since their fourth-place performance in the Tokyo Olympics. In the single-pool tournament, it will play China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia. India’s first match will be against Thailand on December 5, followed by Malaysia on December 6 and the hosts and defending champions Korea on December 8.
On December 9th, India will face China, and on December 11th, India will face Japan. On December 12, the winner of the pool will face the team that finished second in the pool in the final. In the absence of Rani, who is receiving treatment in Bengaluru, Savita, who is leading the team stated, “Definitely the whole team is excited. This is our first tournament after the Olympics and we have a responsibility to do well at the tournament.” She added, “We have quite a few youngsters who are part of the team and will be making their International debut, they are also looking forward to this exposure. A team like Korea is difficult to beat at home and last edition too we lost to them closely in the Final and this time too I expect them to challenge us.”