Savita Punia-led Indian women’s hockey team departs for Commonwealth Games 2022

The Indian women’s hockey team departed for London from Barcelona on Monday morning, for the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2022.

Upon reaching London, the team will go to Nottingham for their final preparation camp before leaving for Birmingham on July 23. CWG 2022 is scheduled to begin from July 28 and will end on August 8. India finished joint-ninth with China at the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2022 in Spain and Netherlands. For their first match in Birmingham, India are scheduled to face Ghana on July 29.

Ahead of CWG 2022, India captain Savita Punia stated that the team will be aiming to bounce back to good form and ‘take a fresh start’. Speaking to Hockey India, she said, “Unfortunately, we couldn’t play to our potential.

At the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup Spain & Netherlands 2022, but we are very determined to turn our form around at the Commonwealth Games 2022. We have a great squad with a fantastic balance of experienced and young players. We’ll take a fresh start at CWG 2022 and I am certain that we will be able to take on the best of teams in the competition”.

“We have to improve upon a few aspects of our game and we will be focussing on that in the lead up to CWG 2022. I feel we have been playing well, but just need to tweak a few things in our game to start winning games consistently”, she further added.

Here is the Indian women’s hockey team squad:

Goalkeepers: Savita Punia (captain), Rajani Etimarpu

Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka (vice captain), Gurjit Kaur, Nikki Pradhan, Udita

Midfielders: Nisha, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Monika, Neha, Jyoti, Navjot Kaur, Salima Tete

Forwards: Vandana Katariya, Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur, Sharmila Devi, Sangita Kumari