Savita: 'We have a well-settled team going into the Olympic qualifiers'

The Indian women’s hockey team vice captain Savita feels having a well-settled unit will help the team excel against USA in the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers to be held in Bhubaneswar on November 1 and 2.

The Indian women’s hockey team drew a tricky USA in the final round of the Olympic qualifiers.

The Indian women’s hockey team vice captain Savita feels having a well-settled unit will help the team excel against USA in the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers to be held in Bhubaneswar on November 1 and 2.

The Indian women’s hockey team drew a tricky USA in the final round of the Olympic qualifiers.

“Most of the players selected for our upcoming tour of England have played together as a unit for a long time now. We have a well-settled unit as we understand each other’s game pretty well which will further help us against USA at the Olympic qualifiers,” Savita said.

“It has been our aim to qualify for Tokyo after having qualified for Rio after a gap of 36 years. We are all very determined about succeeding in the qualifiers and the upcoming matches against Great Britain will be good preparation for that,” she added.

As part of preparation for the Qualifiers, the team will play a five-match series against England from September 27 to October 4 and India’s ace goalkeeper believes that in USA, it will get to face similar side.

“Great Britain and USA have quite similar playing styles, and all of us are really pleased that we will be playing against Great Britain before the two huge matches in November,” she said.

“The girls have been sweating it out in training for the past two weeks, and I am really confident that we will be able to execute our plans well,” Savita added.