Youth Olympics silver medallists Salima Tete and Lalremsiami were included in a 33-member group for the women’s hockey national camp, beginning in Bengaluru from Friday.
The camp, ahead of India’s tour of Spain starting January 24, will be conducted under the watchful eyes of chief coach Sjoerd Marijne.
“We will be working on getting to the right fitness level in a short 20-day camp to play matches during the team’s tour to Spain. We also want to train some new things we want to implement in our game,” Marijne said.
India surged to No 9 in the world rankings. They also clinched the silver medal from the Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Games.
Marijne said, “Better finishing and creating more scoring opportunities are the two key areas we need to improve this year.
“Having someone like Australia’s Glenn Turner was good but we can’t expect that we will now score more goals because of that 10-day camp.
“Every input will only improve the process of scoring more goals and this camp with Glenn was one of them. He shared his experience from his career and those things can help players,” he added.
Apart from Tete and Lalremsiami, several senior players retained their place in the core group.
Core group
Goalkeepers: Savita, Rajani Etimarpu,Sonal Minj.
Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Sunita Lakra, Sushila Chanu Phukhrambam, Gurjit Kaur, Rashmita Minz, Suman Devi Thoudam, Mahima Choudhary, Nisha, Salima Tete.
Midfielders: Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Lilima Minz, Namita Toppo, Neha Goyal, Udita, Jyoti, Anuja Singh, Shyama Tidgam, Sonika, Karishma Yadav.
Forwards: Rani, Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur, Navjot Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Vandana Katariya, Anupa Barla, Priyanka Wankhede, Reena Khokhar, Leelavathy Mallamada Jaya.