Assessing the Indian Challenge for the Hockey games at the Rio Olympics

The Indian men’s and women’s team will be looking to bring back the glory days of hockey back in India with some inspired performances at the Rio Olympics. The men’s team that was in the last position at the London Olympics has become a prime contender for a medal at Rio and the women’s team which was not even part of the Olympic contingent has marked its comeback.

The things have changed and the stakes are higher than they ever were and a dream for a medal looks like a mere possibility this time. The Indian contingent will look to forget the disastrous campaign of 2012 by claiming a medal to rekindle the rise of hockey in India once again and on the other hand the Women’s team will be marking their return to the greatest sporting event of the world after a wait of 36 years.

Squad Men’s

P R Sreejesh, Rupinder Pal Singh, kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, VR Ragunath, SK Uthappa, Devinder Walmiki, Manpreet Singh, Chinglansana Singh, Sardar Singh, SV Sunil, Aksashdeep Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Nikkin Thimmaiah and Ramandeep Singh.

Also Read – Rio Olympic 2016 Hockey Schedule

The men’s team has some household names in the Squad with the inclusion of Superstars like Sardar Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh and VR Ragunath. The team has a potent attacking force with some popular faces alongside some Players which have become established names in the team by their current performances.

Women’s

Savita Punia, Sunita Lakra, Sushila Chanu, Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Deepika Thakur, Monika, Navjot Kaur, Renuka Yadav, Anuradha Devi Thokchom, Nikki Pradhan, Poonam Rani, Vandana Kataria, Rani Rampal, Preeti Dubey and Lilima MInz.

The women team is led by Shishila Chanu along with the highly experienced Deepika Thakur acting as the vice captain. The team looks evenly balanced with some highly experienced performers.

Strict actions could Backfire

There were some strict decisions taken by the governing body that will surely impact the Indian Campaign. The men’s team will enter the Tournament with their new captain in the name of P R Sreejesh and the women’s team suffered a major blow after the exclusion of Ritu Rani due to disciplinary issues.

Verdicts

A very little is expected from the women’s team but the Men’s team carries a huge burden of the hopes and judging by the current performances, they have a real chance for glory.