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Women's Hockey World Cup 2022: India face England in opening match
The 2022 Women's Hockey World Cup starts on July 1 with India facing England in their opening match on July 3 in Pool B.
India will face England in their opening match of the FIH Hockey Women's World Cup 2022, which starts on July 1. The International Hockey Federation announced the schedule for the tournament on Tuesday and India, who are placed in Group B, will play their opening fixture on July 3.
They will then face China on July 5 and New Zealand on July 7.
"It does not matter against which opponents we start our campaign. We are not afraid of which team we are facing first as our mentality and our mindset is to take each game as it comes and try and win every match," India halfback Sushila Chanu told reporters in a virtual press conference.
"We have faced China recently in Muscat, Oman, in the Women's Hockey Asia Cup 2022, and in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22. And so it will be an advantage for us. We will be playing the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 matches against England next month. We had last played New Zealand in 2020. So we know about all these teams quite well and we know how we have to prepare for the upcoming challenges," the veteran hockey player added.
India faced Spain at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar over the past weekend in a two-legged affair. While India won the first match 2-1, Spain won the second match 4-3. India forward Navneet Kaur also spoke on how the team has gained confidence in the past couple of years because of constantly facing higher-ranked opponents.
"Around 2-3 years ago, there used to be a concern in the team before facing stronger opponents. But now, there is no fear in our team and we feel we are ready to face every challenge. Even if an opponent scores the first goal, we know we have the capability and skills to get things back in our favour," Navneet said.
"Our team has developed a fighting spirit over the past couple of years. This has worked really well for us," she added.
India will next play a double-header against Germany in FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22 on March 12 (Saturday) and March 13 (Sunday). On being asked about the preparation for the upcoming games, Navneet said: "We have faced off against Germany last year. So, we will definitely take a look back at videos of those matches to recognise what are our stronger areas, and what areas we have to improve upon when we face them again."
