NEW DELHI: Indian women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal feels that a good show in the series against Argentina will boost her side’s confidence heading into this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Indian women’s team will hit the restart button and begin its Olympic preparations with the tour of Argentina, starting next week, almost a year after their calendar was disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic.
“If we play to our potential against Argentina, then we will attain (gain) a lot of confidence for the all-important Olympics, where we are aiming nothing short of a medal,” Rani was quoted as saying in a Hockey India (HI) media release.
“Hopefully, we can make history in Tokyo and make our country proud. We are going to give our absolute best in every match we play this year,” she added.
India will compete in eight matches against hosts Argentina, starting from January 17 to 31.
“We are very excited to make our return to the international circuit. The year 2020 was really tough for us, however, we continued to practice our skills at the national coaching camp.”
The skipper is looking forward to seeing how her teammates responds in match situations after a long break.
“All the players in the team are feeling very confident about their games and it will be interesting to see how each one of them performs in a match situation after staying away from the international circuit for almost one year.”
While the women’s team is gearing up for their next assignment, HI has been in talks with different nations to also organise a tour for the men’s team, which played its last international match against Australia on February 22 last year at the FIH Hockey Pro League.
Men’s skipper Manpreet Singh said his side is keen to get some much-needed match practice ahead of the Tokyo Games.
“We are very excited about getting back into the international circuit. We are really looking forward to playing against an
international team before the Olympics,” Manpreet said.
—PTI

Press Trust of India