Savita to lead India at Hockey Asian Champions Trophy
The Hindu
India is the 2018 edition’s silver medallist
In the absence of Rani Rampal, who is undergoing rehab, goalkeeper Savita Punia will lead an 18-member Indian hockey team in the women’s Asian Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held at Donghae, Korea, from December 5 to 12.
Navjot Kaur and youngster Suman Devi Thoudam have been chosen as alternative players.
“Despite some injuries and senior players joining the under-21 team for the Junior World Cup in South Africa, I feel we have selected a good team. This tournament will be a good opportunity for some young players to get a taste of the highest international level,” said chief coach Janneke Schopman.
He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.