The Indian junior women's hockey team is currently in Chile's capital city of Santiago, and is already looking forward to taking to the field here against Chile's junior side in their first match of the tour.
One of India's brightest forward players, Jharkhand's Beauty Dungdung, who will be spearheading the Indian team's attack along with the likes of Lalrindiki and Mumtaz Khan, spoke ahead of the upcoming matches and is confident of her team doing well.
"First of all, I would like to thank Hockey India, Sports Authority of India, and hosts Chile, for having orgsed this tour for our team. We feel very fortunate to be in this position to resume competitive hockey, and with all the protocols in place, we are preparing now to take part in our first match this weekend," said the 17-year-old striker in an official Hockey India release.
"Obviously with the pandemic, we could not play any tournaments last year, but my last memory of playing for the Indian team is a memorable one, as we won the 3-Nations invitational tournament held in Australia in December 2019. It hasn't been easy since then to only take part in limited sports activities back at camp in Bengaluru, but we feel really confident in our abilities, and we have all been putting in the work to make sure we are ready to compete here in Chile," expressed Dungdung, who idolises former India captain Asunta Lakra.
With the Indian team scheduled to play a total of six matches between January 18-25, Dungdung said that the tour will give her team much-needed exposure.
"We know we have these six matches against a tough opponent. First, we play two matches against Chile and then four matches against their senior team, which gives us great exposure, and our team is really looking forward to gaining as much as we all can from this tour," said Dungdung.
The Indian junior women's hockey team will face Chile junior team on January 18.
( With inputs from ANI )
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