CWG 2018 | Indian women hockey squad confident despite mixed results in warm-up games

The Indian women hockey side didn’t have the most encouraging of starts in their pre-campaign matches. After beating Australia’s local Queensland side 5-0 in the first warm-up match, they went down 1-3 to Canada. However, the match against Canada had numerous restrictions like no penalty corners and Harendra refused to give much importance to it. Speaking to Hindustan Times in an interview, a confident-sounding coach revealed that the side’s first priority would be to qualify for the knockouts.

“The pressure is there as we are the only other country besides Australia to win the gold. But the girls have shaped up well and I am very hopeful. The current temperature here is just like what we faced in Bangalore, so conditions should not be a problem – they actually are the same as back home. The facilities are great, the turf is new and quite fast, which I think will help us,” he added.