For years, the Indian women’s hockey team struggled to live up to its expectation. Despite displaying its potential, the team, in the past had panicked under pressure, struggled to deliver on the big days and failed to bring its A-game on the days that mattered most. They were not even the most dominant force of Asia.
But the last four years has been a phase of resurgence. India had, after 36 years, qualified for the Olympics in 2016. Despite a winless campaign in the quadrennial event, they struck gold in the Asian Champions Trophy that followed. Last year, they topped the podium in the women’s Asia Cup. Even if it didn’t yield a medal, their Commonwealth Games campaign in March was commendable, for they upset England and made Australia sweat.
But the moment of reckoning for this team has finally come. The Rani Rampal led team will begin their World Cup in London from Saturday against hosts England and a confident showing in the tournament would be a big boost for their Asian Games preparation.
When asked if the team can handle the pressure of playing the World Cup and the Asian Games (in August) back-to-back, coach Sjoerd Marijne told Scroll.in, “The World Cup schedule isn’t that heavy. You get a good amount of break in between matches. For us, it’s an important tournament. I know a lot of Indians are focusing on the Asian Games. But the girls worked a year and a half to qualify for the World Cup. So, we are going to focus on doing well in the tournament.”
India’s World Cup jinx
If this team is aware of India’s record at the World Cup, then it perhaps will bear the pressure of breaking a hoodoo.
Despite finishing fourth in the inaugural edition in 1974, India have managed to participate only in six of the 13 World Cups played so far. In the six editions, they have nine wins, 27 losses and three draws. The fourth-placed finish is India’s best performance in the tournament till date. It’s been four decades since they even qualified for the quarter-final stage.
The last time India participated in the World Cup, eight years ago, they’d finished ninth.
This is perhaps why coach Marijne’s first target is to get to the last-eight stage of the tournament. Grouped with England, USA and Ireland, India’s place in the quarter-final isn’t granted.
According to the format of the tournament, the top-ranked team in the group directly qualifies for the quarter-finals while the second- and third-placed teams would get another chance in the play-offs to make it to the last eight stage.
A victory over the hosts on Saturday should ease the pressure on Rani and her team.
The Indian team had suffered a humiliating 0-6 loss against the English women in the bronze medal play-off at the Commonwealth Games. But that result was probably an abrasion as the team was probably exhausted following a nerve-wracking 0-1 loss against Australia in the semi-finals in Gold Coast.
After all, a relatively fresh India had upset their English rivals 2-1 in the group stage.
‘Pressure’s on England’
“The pressure will be on England and not on us,” said skipper Rani on the eve of the match.
“Yes, they will have the home-ground advantage but we are not new to playing in front of big crowds. We have done well against England before and we will carry the confidence of doing well in our recent tournaments including the CWG where we had tasted victory against England in the Group Stage in Gold Coast. We will go into the match with the belief that we can beat them. We just need to make sure we don’t make silly mistakes like we did in the bronze-medal match at the CWG which cost us the game,” added Rani.
Rani was the lynchpin of the attack in India’s last campaign at the World Cup. She was, then, a raw talent, a prolific scorer. Over the years, her game has evolved and she has become an all-round player.
For a while, the team was over-reliant on Rani for its victories but coach Marijne said that wasn’t the case anymore.
“The team, especially the forward line, does not depend on Rani alone anymore to score goals. We have young strikers including the experience of Vandana Katariya with 200-plus international caps, who have scored on multiple occasions for the team. I like to look at the positives we have and having a drag-flicker like Gurjit Kaur who is one of the best in the world is also an advantage we have,” he said.
After a long time, India has a team that can finish on the World Cup podium – even if not on top of it – if it plays its A-game throughout. A medal here will provide them a fillip ahead of the Asian Games, where a chance to qualify for a second-straight Olympics beckons.