RANCHI: As the Indian women’s hockey team gears up for the FIH Olympic Qualifiers to be held from January 13-19, there remains a lot of doubt on what will be the team’s strategy as far as penalty corners are concerned.
While the team failed to do well in that area during the Asian Games in Hangzhou, they were able to score as many as eight goals from PCs during the Asian Champions Trophy held here last year. And it was 20-year-old Deepika who impressed coach Janneke Schopman the most.
However, unlike last time, she will be the only PC specialist in the team this time around in absence of senior PC expert Deep Grace Ekka, who has been left out of the squad.
Deepika, who put up a brilliant performance at the women’s Junior Asia Cup last year scoring seven goals — four of which came from PCs — in six games, scored only once from the PC during ACT but Schopman expects great things from her in this crucial tournament.
“Deepika is a very good drag-flicker. She is young and I am quite pleased with her performance during the last tournament where we scored some good PCs. But we have multiple threats. I just want her to execute her skills. It’s difficult to score from PCs but let’s see, if she executes, I’m happy,” said Schopman during a press conference here on Thursday.
Although Schopman didn’t want to put any pressure on the youngster, the coach spoke highly of her.
“Her drag-flick threat is something that even coaches in Spain and from other teams who are not here are talking about. ‘You have a very good dragflicker', they said. So, it’s not that we don’t have a threat. I think everybody is well aware that we do,” the coach further added.
The coach is also confident that besides Deepika, there are others as well who have what it takes to score from PCs. “Udita is developing her threat from the top of the circle and I’m quite pleased with that. Neha and Navneet Kaur are also very good threats. Salima is also a good back-up option and has a very good slap,” the coach from the Netherlands said.
And then there’s Gurjit Kaur, too, on standby and she even took part in the practice match against the Czech Republic on Thursday evening which the hosts won 2-0.
Gurjit, who was part of the team for the five-nation tournament in Europe last year, for long has been India’s go-to PC specialist but whether she will get to play a part in the tournament remains to be seen.
The coach, meanwhile, was more than happy with the PC session that was conducted by former Indian men’s player Rupinder Pal Singh ahead of the tournament.
“He has the experience, and he also knows what it’s like to be at the top of the circle. He is also aware of the pressure of putting the ball into the net. So, it was really helpful to have him there so that the girls could talk to him and get to know of some important pointers as well,” Schopman said.
Hopefully, his teachings will bear fruit as Schopman looks to lead the team to their third successive Olympics in Paris.
