India ‘A’ Men and Women Hockey Teams left for playing Australian Hockey League

On September 23, 2017, India ‘A’ Men and Women Hockey teams departed to play the Australian Hockey League, that is to begin from September 28 in Perth, Australia. There will be 10 teams including the last year Champions Victoria. India ‘A’ Women team has been trained at the SAI Centre in Bhopal as part of the preparations for the Australian Hockey League. Defending Champions Victoria will fight for retaining its top honours. Indian goalkeeper Vikas Dahiya will be leading the team along with Harjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Armaan Qureshi, Krishan Pathak, Gurinder Singh, Santa Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vikramjit Singh. Talwinder Singh, Affan Yousuf and Amit Rohidas will also be there who have had strong outings for the Indian men’s team in recent tournaments. Many of the players in Indian team are well experienced. The team has a great understanding and have done good preparations for the challenge in Australia. Preeti Dubey who is only 19 years old, is the skipper for the India ‘A’ women’s team. She has a good career record for the senior women’s team at the Hockey World League Semi Final. Most of the team members don’t have a strong international exposure. Ms. Preeti said that AHL will be a platform to test their abilities against strong set of opponents in tough Australian conditions. They all are looking forward positively.

By: Anita Aishvarya

Content: hockeyindia.org