The Indian women's hockey team is currently based at Birmingham, about 140 kilometres away from a place they will have very fond memories of – Manchester. The city from northwest England was the venue for the final of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, in which India defeated the host to win their one and the only gold medal in the competition so far.
India defeated hosts England 3-2 in extra time to win the gold medal, coming back to score the winner in the final moments of extra time. The two teams are on the path to collision in Birmingham as well, having being place in the same Pool A alongside Ghana, Canada and Wales.
Winning that match and topping the group could extremely crucial for the Indians, as they would dearly want to avoid strong Australia in the semi-finals.
However, in recent years, India have found England a tougher nut to crack as compared to Australia, whom they defeated in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympic. After losing out to Argentina in the semis, India suffered a defeat against the Great Britain side in the third-place match.
Quite understandably, this will be redemption time for the Indian women's hockey team, who will look to bounce back from what was a disastrous campaign in the FIH Women's World Cup in Amsterdam and Spain.
Janneke Schopman and her team arrived in Amsterdam on the back of a number of good FIH Pro League results, including wins over the Netherlands and Argentina.
However, it came crashing down at the World Cup, where India finished ninth after losing their pool match to New Zealand and then losing the crossover match to Spain.
With players such as penalty corner specialists Gurjit Kaur, goalkeeper, and captain Savita Punia and young star Lalremsiami, fans can certainly expect India to turn things around in Birmingham.
The Indian women's team opens their campaign with a match against lowly Ghana in their preliminary round match on Friday. They will then cross swords against Wales on Saturday, followed by a match against England on 2 August and a tie against Canada a day later.
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