The Indian Women’s Hockey will begin their campaign against the hosts, South Africa on 8th July 2017 at the Hockey World League Semi Finals in Johannesburg.
The other teams in our group are Chile, USA and Argentina. The Indian Team is currently ranked 12th in the World.
India will need to play their best game against the hosts and aim for full points, as the next matches are against higher ranked Argentina and USA.
The top 5 teams in this event will automatically qualify for the 2018 World Cup in London. India missed the last World Cup in 2014 but did qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio after 36 years.
As part of their preparation for the event, the Indian Team had a short training camp at the SAI Center in Shilaroo, Himachal Pradesh.The Indian Coach, Sjored Marijne along with Captain Rani Rampal sounded optimistic at the end of the camp,and said that the team worked on their weaknesses. The Indian team had a disastrous tour of New Zealand earlier this year where they lost the Test Series 0-5.
In the FIH HWL semi finals held in Brussels last month, Holland, China, New Zealand, South Korea and Australia booked their tickets for next years World Cup.