Indian women's hockey team on 'Mission 500' in Hiroshima

India women's hockey team — the favourites.

It's a title that the national senior women's hockey team hasn't been too familiar with in the recent past. But fancied it will be entering the FIH Women's Series Finals starting on Saturday in Hiroshima, where two spots are up for grabs for the FIH Olympic qualifiers later in the year.

Placed ninth in the world, India are the highest-ranked team in the event but unlike with the men's tournament currently ongoing in Bhubaneswar, the competition will be a lot closer for captain Rani and her troops. They'll have to battle with 14th-ranked hosts Japan and world No. 16 Chile, although their pool stage has neither of them.

The favourites tag can either bring out the best from a team or make it wilt under the burden of expectations. Head coach Sjoerd Marijne, however, isn't too fussed about either.

"We were in the same position two years ago at the World League Round 2 with the same teams, and we did well there," Marijne told DNA from Hiroshima. "The most important thing is that we avoid being busy with those kind of thoughts. We have to focus on our own topics."

One of those topics is what the Dutchman labels "Mission 500".

Should India win this tournament, they will pocket 500 points that will boost their rankings and ensure that they host the opposition team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers by virtue of being the higher-ranked team.

"The players know the importance of this tournament, and we call it Mission 500," Marijne said.

"It's all about the 500 points, which will give us the home advantage for the next round of qualifiers.

"We don't have to worry about not qualifying for the next round because of our rankings. We have one goal this year: qualifying for the Olympics, and it doesn't matter how we do it as long as we achieve it."

Psychologist Effect

The coach might exude confidence, but there's no doubt that this key event will be a test of the mental strength of this Indian women's team, more so with Rani's squad expected to go all the way.

Earlier this year, Marijne set a trend of sorts not just in Indian hockey but sport in general by taking a psychologist along with the team on its tour to Spain in January, besides regularly working on the players' mindset during camps in Bengaluru.

And, the 45-year-old Dutchman is hoping that the rewards of that exercise start bearing fruit.

"We are working twice a week with psychologists Priyanka and Somya, and together with me, we have prepared the girls mentally.

"This is an area where you can't do once and then stop. You have to keep training the mind for these kind of things and they are learning how to stay focused on the task," Marijne said, adding that he hopes to take sports psychologists along on more tours with the approval of Sports Authority of India.

For the Series Finals, India are clubbed in Pool A with Poland (world No. 23), Uruguay (24) and Fiji (44), which should make their passage to the semifinals straightforward. There's thus a danger of complacency creeping into the side while facing lower-ranked teams. Marijne, though, has a way to tackle it.

"After every match, we have a very direct feedback session where the girls know exactly from me and from each other how their performance was. We use this to keep everyone focused on their task. If we think we were not good enough, we just say it directly with everybody in the room. It creates transparency and the girls appreciate that," he said.

The team has had a few good results this year leading up to the tournament. In the tour to Spain, India drew a four-match series 1-1 with the seventh-ranked Spain and won a two-match series 1-0 against World Cup runners-up Ireland. They then beat Malaysia (five-match series 4-0) and Korea (three-match series 2-1) in the following two outings.

"We know more, because of these tours, where our challenges lie, and the biggest one is to stay focussed and not to take things lightly. Every match is important and that's how the girls have to approach it," Marijne said.

No Attention, No Problem

While most of the attention among hockey followers and media is on the Men’s Series Finals currently on in Bhubaneswar, the women’s team doesn’t mind flying under the radar miles away in Hiroshima. “To be honest, we are not busy with that. We have our own targets which we are focused on and what happens in the media or other attention is far away from us,” coach Sjoerd Marijne said.

The Groups

• Pool A: India (world No. 9), Poland (23), Uruguay (24), Fiji (44)
• Pool B: Japan (14), Chile (16), Russia (25), Mexico (29)

The Squad

Goalkeepers: Savita (V-C), Rajani Etimarpu; Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Nisha, Gurjit Kaur, Salima Tete, Sunita Lakra; Midfielders: Monika, Nikki Pradhan, Lilima Minz, Neha Goyal, Sushila Pukhrambam; Forwards: Rani (C), Vandana Katariya, Navjot Kaur, Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Jyoti