India will start their campaign against England on 3 July in the FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup to be held in the Netherlands this year. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced the World Cup schedule on Tuesday. India have been placed in Pool B, where they will take on China on July 5 and New Zealand on July 7.
India will play their pool round matches at the Wagner Hockey Stadium in Amstelveen, Netherlands in this tournament to be held from July 1 to 17. After the schedule was made public, Indian women’s team halfback Sushila Chanu said that the team will not panic about facing any opponent.
Chanu said, “It doesn’t matter against which opponent we will start our campaign. We are not scared because our thinking and mindset is to take every match like the next match. We will try to win every match. “We recently faced China in the Asia Cup in Muscat, Oman and then in the FIH Pro League. We will benefit from this.
Chanu said, ‘We will play Hockey Pro League matches against England next month. We last played New Zealand in 2020, so we know these teams very well. We know how to prepare to face these challenges.
Indian forward Navneet Kaur said that the team has gained a lot of confidence in the last two years and now it is not afraid to face any kind of challenge. “Around two-three years ago we used to get worried about facing strong rivals but now there is no such fear in the team and we feel that we are ready to face every challenge,” he said.