India: Kaushik hopeful PC tide will turn
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| India |
February 3, 2004
Times of India, India
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TIMES NEWS NETWORK
NEW DELHI: India need to beat Kazakhstan by a bigger margin than what China put past Malaysia, if the hosts have to come out Group A toppers in the 5th Women's Asia Cup hockey tournament. For this the Indian coach MK Kaushik appears to have some plans up his sleeves which, he hopes, his girls will execute successfully on the National Stadium turf on Wednesday.
The Indian team, with quite a number of youngsters in the line-up, is in a process of rebuilding. Kaushik is not aiming high in terms of winning the Asia Cup, but he feels his girls will utilise this opportunity to make an impact.
He, however, feels that a bigger pool of players would have given him more options in selecting the players. "Today, my main worry is injury to keyplayers. We cannot afford injuries to senior girls like Jyoti Sunita Kullu,Surajlata Devi or Sumrai Tete in any tournament. As a result, we can hardlygive them a break," Kaushik said.
As for Wednesday's match against the Kazakhs, the Indian team will be trying out new combinations for penalty corners. India's penalty corner conversion rate in this tournament has been poor, yet the coach is confident that the goals, when they do, will come through PCs only.
"The Kazakhstan team plays defensive hockey. So that would mean our girls can get more chances to force penalty corners," Kaushik said.
So far only Sumanbala has been attempting the PCs, but the coach is likely to try out drag-flicker Jasjeet Kaur and Kantiba on Wednesday. However, the coach said , "Jasjeet needs more grooming to be an international level drag-flicker," Kaushik said of Jasjeet.
Most of the Indian women players need more exposure, and the coach is planning to meet with Indian Women's Hockey Federation (IWHF) after this tournament to workout the possibilities of holding a couple of matches with some of the visiting teams.
Wednesday's matches: 10.30am Malaysia vs China, 11am India vs Kazakhstan, 1pm Sri Lanka vs Singapore, 3pm Korea vs Japan.
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