The Indian junior women's team has been grouped with Belgium, Canada and Germany in Pool C of Junior Women's Hockey World Cup to be held from November 29 to December 10, 2023, in Santiago, Chile.
The announcement was made by the organising committee of the event on Thursday night.
The Indian team, which finished fourth in the last edition of the tournament in 2022 after going down to England in the bronze medal playoff match, will open their campaign against Canada on the opening day of the meet before taking on former champions Germany on December 1. In their third and last Pool game, the Indian girls will take on Belgium on December 2.
While the team will be high on confidence after their performance in Junior Asia Cup earlier this month, Indian women's team chief coach Janneke Schopman is well aware that the team will have to put in extra effort to do well in the 16-team event. After all, they are in quite a tough group.
"The team is blooming with confidence after winning the Asia Cup. But the World Cup will be much more challenging as we'll face strong teams from around the world. Every match in the tournament will test our skills, teamwork, and resilience. The Pool draw reinforces the need for us to raise our game and push our limits to achieve success," said Schopman.
The coach, however, sounded quite confident of the team's potential and believes they will be able to rise to the occasion whenever the time comes.
"Our goal is to create a cohesive unit that performs with a never-give-up attitude, and stays true to our game plan while adapting to the challenges posed by each opponent. We will leave no stone unturned in our preparations to ensure we are well-prepared for the tournament," she added.
As per the tournament format, each team will play the other three teams in their Pool once during the group stage and the top two teams from each Pool will progress to the quarterfinals, while the remaining teams will play for classification positions.
Groups:
Pool A: Australia, Chile, the Netherlands, South Africa;
Pool B: Argentina, Korea, Spain, Zimbabwe;
Pool C: Belgium, Canada, Germany, India;
Pool D: England, Japan, New Zealand, the United States
India ranked sixth: FIH on Thursday night also revealed the new Junior Women's World Rankings where India have been ranked sixth, while the Netherlands are ranked first. Argentina, Germany, England and the US are ranked second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
