The India ladies’s hockey crew will excursion Australia for a five-match collection from May 18 to 27. The Savita Punia-led facet will play Australia within the first 3 video games earlier than taking over Australia A within the last two suits.
The video games towards global No 3 Australia might be performed on May 18, 20 and 21 whilst the video games towards Australia A will happen on May 25 and 27. All video games might be performed on the MATE Stadium in Adelaide.
The excursion will function a warm-up for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, to happen in September-October.
“Playing Australia in Australia will assist us assess the place we’re in comparison to the highest of ladies’s hockey. More importantly, the collection might be an important for our arrangements for the Asian Games in China as it’ll give us perfect publicity whilst serving to us spot the spaces the place we want to make enhancements and adjustments. So, it is a essential excursion for us strategically,” Janneke Schopman, India leader trainer, mentioned.
This would be the 2nd excursion for the sector No 8 outfit this yr after touring to Cape Town in January the place they performed 4 suits towards hosts South Africa and 3 towards global and Olympic champions Netherlands. India gained the collection 3-0 towards global No 22 South Africa however misplaced all 3 video games to global No 1 Netherlands.
Australia gained the final sport between the 2 aspects by the use of a shootout within the semi-finals of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Before that India had sensationally knocked out the Hockeyroos out within the quarter-final of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“Any opportunity the Hockeyroos have to play in Australia is always special and this series is one we’re really looking forward to. We have an exciting group of players named for these matches and there will be plenty to play for. Not only is it an opportunity to take on a really strong international opponent, but also for selection with players vying to be part of our team for the Oceania Cup and in the frame for the Paris Olympics,” mentioned Australia head trainer Katrina Powell.