Women team returns, will fly to New Zealand now.
Having played seven matches in the twin tour of Japan and China, Indian women hockey team returned on the wee hours of Sunday.
India played three matches against China and four against Japan. The visitors had lost both the series, but chief coach MK Kaushik is not perturbed.
“I tried all the youngsters here, for some freshers it’s the first ever foreign tour, they got big match experience. The idea was to give them exposure, that way am satisfied” said Coach MK Kaushik.
“We wanted to send the youngsters to South Africa before the series, but that did not happen, so we decided to use this trip for the World Cup build up”.
“Japan are preparing for the World Cup Qualifier, they were keen on winning the series. We were not bad as the score would otherwise suggest, but I lament we did not take our umpires”.
For instance, we used one goalkeeper for each match, so that they can get confidence, must have now been mentally tough to compete against seniors in the camp” he added.
It is gathered that the Chinese team had seven Olympic silver medalists in their team, though couple of senior players were missing on account of their league engagement elsewhere in Europe.
Indian team is likely to again convene at Bhopal for the preparatory camp, as India will be visiting New Zealand this month, and then for a four-nation competition in Germany.
“New Zealand is a tough side, it will be good for us to go and compete in their environment”, Kaushik elaborated.
India will play five test matches in New Zealand.
Most of the nations are seriously preparing for the forthcoming Sep-Oct World Cup in Argentina.
New Zealand and Argentina are playing a series, Australia recently visited Argentina.
“Leading countries are seriously preparing for the world cup. Two Chinese players are playing in the European league, while two of their drag flickers are undergoing specialist training in Netherlands. We should also focus on specific areas, decide the core team, and now onwards put them on main competitions”.
China is also making a month long Europe tour starting from next week.
He has confirmed Surinder and Dipika Murthy, dropped for the twin tour, will be back in the training.
They are core players, they will be in the camp, they were there before also”, he stated.