The Indian women’s hockey team will look to move on from the disappointment of failing to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics with a good performance in the FIH Hockey Pro League.
The Indian side will be led by skipper Savita and her deputy Vandana Katariya. Speaking ahead of the tournament, Indian coach Janneke Schopman shared her excitement saying, “It’s great to be back in Odisha, everyone here is supportive of hockey and we want to do our best here. Now we want to show we are a good team and we can play against good teams as well. We won’t get the Olympics back but we can only look forward, and that is our plan, we want to show that we can play hockey.”
The FIH Hockey Pro League comes at exactly the right time for India to distract themselves from the heartbreak of failing to qualify for the Olympics. It also allows India to test their mettle against some of the best teams in the world and see where they stand.
The FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24 (Women) is scheduled to take place at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from 3rd to 9th February before moving to the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, where the league will continue from 12th to 18th February. The national teams of India, China, the United States of America, the Netherlands, and Australia – will participate in the India leg of the FIH Pro League 2023/24, facing each other once in Bhubaneswar and once in Rourkela.
India will take on reigning Asian Games Champions China in their first game on 3rd February, followed by a clash with the Netherlands on 4th February. They will face off against Australia on 7th February before playing their last game in Bhubaneswar against the United States on 9th February.
