Indian hockey teams return to national camp at SAI Centre in Bengaluru

The Junior men's national camp is also currently underway at the same venue.

The core probable groups of Indian Hockey Teams - Senior Men, Senior Women, Junior Women, India 'A' Men and India 'A' Women - will return to the National Coaching Camp at the SAI Centre in Bengaluru. While the Indian Women's Hockey Team resumed their camp from Sunday, 24 April, the Indian Men's Team, Junior Women's Team, India 'A' Men and India 'A' Women will report on Monday, 25 April.

Following a successful FIH Pro League 2021/22 home leg, the current table-toppers Indian Women's Team have commenced their preparations for their final set of Pro League matches as well as the FIH Hockey Women's World Cup 2022, scheduled in June and July, respectively. India will be up against teams like Belgium, Argentina and USA in their remaining Pro League games before heading to the 2022 World Cup, which will begin on 1 July in Spain and Netherlands. The preparatory camp will conclude on 31 May.

The 36-member probable list includes a mix of experienced players such as Savita, Gurjit Kaur, Deep Grace Ekka, Navjot Kaur, along with young players like Bichu Devi Kharibam, Ishika Chaudhary, Sharmila Devi, Salima Tete and Lalremsiami, who were part of Indian Junior Women's Hockey Team's fourth-place finish at the recently concluded FIH Hockey Women's Junior World Cup in South Africa.

"After a well-deserved break, I feel the team is ready to enter the final preparation phase for FIH Hockey Pro League in June as well as the 2022 World Cup in July. We made good progress in the last months and we will look to build on our performance. The focus will be on increasing our level of fitness and speed combined with finetuning our game principles. I’m keen to see the players individually take a step forward, as they know what areas they want to work on," stated Indian Women's Hockey Team Chief Coach Janneke Schopman.

The Indian Men's Hockey Team, who are currently leading the FIH Pro League pool table by eight points to second-placed Argentina, will begin their preparations for the upcoming Hero Asia Cup 2022 and the last two Pro League double-headers against Belgium and Netherlands, respectively. 

The Senior Men's Core Probable group features a mix of veteran players such as PR Sreejesh, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and Akashdeep Singh, along with young guns Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh and Jugraj Singh, who recently made their international debuts for the team. The Senior Men's camp will end on 4 June.  

"We had a good two weeks break after a hectic start to the season with Pro League matches. It’s good to finish on top of the table after the home games, but we still have a task at hand when we play top teams in our away matches. We will be working on the areas we have recognised following these past few matches, and the camp in Bengaluru will be an ideal place to revisit our performance and plan the things we need to work on ahead of the all-important Asian Games 2022," stated Indian Men's Team Chief Coach Graham Reid.

Following their heart-breaking fourth-place finish at the recently concluded FIH Hockey Women's Junior World Cup in South Africa, the Junior Women's team will also regroup at the Camp in Bengaluru. Apart from the fresh faces, the list also includes players like Khushboo, Vaishnavi Phalke, Beauty Dungdung and Mumtaz Khan, who were an integral part of the Junior Women's team at the marquee event. The 33-member Core Probable Group will report to Coach Erik Wonink at the National Camp.

After having a short break, newly-formed India 'A' Women's and Men's 'A' Core groups too will assemble at the national coaching camp. The Women's 'A' Core Group and will report to former Indian Men’s Hockey Team forward and two-time Olympian Deepak Thakur. Whereas, the Men's 'A' Core Group will report to former Indian Men’s Hockey Team Captain Sardar Singh.

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