Canberra, Sep 25 As the Indian Junior Women’s hockey team is gearing up to play their five-match Australia Tour, to be held at the National Hockey Centre in Canberra from September 26 to October 2, head coach Tushar Khandker said the main goal of the team on the tour is to indentify the areas to work on in their build-up to FIH Junior Women's World Cup 2025.
The tour will offer valuable exposure for the young Indian squad, allowing them to test their skills in international conditions against strong teams. The team undertook a similar tour in Europe back in June, where they faced Belgium, Australia, and the Netherlands over five matches. India demonstrated their prowess by defeating Belgium three times in a row, followed by a win against Australia and a narrow shootout loss to the Netherlands.
Speaking on the team's last outing in Europe, Indian Junior Women’s Team coach Tushar Khandker said, "After our last tour, we have worked on some areas in terms of structural play and individual technical skills. We have reflected on those matches over the past three months and have done a good job in improving as a group. I hope that in these upcoming five games we'll be able to show what we have learned and worked on."
Further talking about the team's preparations ahead of the Australia series, Tushar Khandker commented, "We've been training in the camp in Bangalore and it has been really good. Our preparations for the upcoming World Cup are on track and we are here in Australia to play some competitive games. The goal of this tour is to identify which are the areas we really need to work on and test ourselves before the World Cup."
The young squad will play their first three fixtures against the Australia Junior Women’s Team on September 26, 27, and 29, followed by two matches against Canberra Chill, a club playing in Australia’s premier Hockey One League, on September 30 and October 2.
The team is led by Captain Jyoti Singh and coach Tushar Khandker in what is a crucial set of matches in terms of India's preparations for the Junior World Cup, set to be played in December in Santiago, Chile.
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