The Thailand Women’s Hockey Team was welcomed with the sounds of drums and fireworks as it arrived in Ranchi for the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy Ranchi 2023 on Wednesday.
Thailand is set to face opponents like Malaysia, China, Korea, Japan, and hosts India at the event.
This will be Thailand’s second outing in the competition. It finished fourth in its maiden appearance in Donghae Champions Trophy 2021 held in South Korea, where it lost the opening match against India by 13-0.
Thailand will be up against hosts India in the last match of the day on 27th October.
Head Coach Young Wook Bae expressed his ambition for the tournament, saying, “After the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 we had two weeks to prepare our team for the Champions Trophy and we have done the best we can. We had a decent outing in the Asian Games, and we hope to better our performances and go back home as the best of the lot.”
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Thailand women’s team is a fairly young one, with seven players out of the squad of 18 still in their teens, the youngest of the lot is Parichart Phopool, a 15-year-old with 6 caps to her name.
“We have to watch out for Malaysia, we have played them 5 times recently but are yet to win, so we will look to set the record straight against them. China is a strong team as well and we will look to focus on our defence against them and for sure, we will have to be careful against India.”
“We have many young players in the team, with the youngest being a 15-year-old but we believe that they can perform at this level and that is why we have brought them along,” the Thailand Captain Anongnat Piresram weighed in with her thoughts ahead of the tournament, which will take place at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh AstroTurf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi from 27th October to 5th November.
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