Asian Champions Trophy: Indian women's hockey team leaves for Korea

Bengaluru: The Indian women’s hockey team on Tuesday departed for Korea to participate in the Asian Champions Trophy to be held in Donghae from 5 December. It will be the first tournament for the Indian team since finishing fourth at the Tokyo Olympics. It will face China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia in the single-pool competition. India will play its opening match against Thailand on 5 December, before taking on Malaysia on December 6 and hosts and defending Champions Korea in the third match on 8 December. India plays China on 9 December and Japan on 11 December. The Final will take place on 12 December between the topper of the pool and the team that finished second in the pool. “Definitely the whole team is excited. This is our first tournament after the Olympics and we have a responsibility to do well at the tournament,” Savita, who is leading the team in the absence of Rani who is undergoing rehab in Bengaluru, said in a release. “We have quite a few youngsters who are part of the team and will be making their International debut, they are also looking forward to this exposure.” World no 9 India are the highest ranked team in the competition. “A team like Korea is difficult to beat at home and last edition too we lost to them closely in the Final and this time too I expect them to challenge us.”