PANAJI: The Indian men and women hockey teams left for Lausanne, Switzerland in the early hours of Wednesday to participate in the inaugural edition of the FIH Hockey5s Lausanne 2022, which will be held on the 4th and 5th June 2022.
While the men’s team is scheduled to play against Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland and Switzerland, the women’s team will face South Africa, Uruguay, Poland and Switzerland in the round-robin stage. The top two teams will square off against each other in the final on 5th June.
Rajani Etimarpu-led Indian women’s team will take on Uruguay in the opening match on 4th June followed by a match against Poland on the same day. They will then square off against the hosts Switzerland and South Africa, respectively on 5th June.
Expressing the team’s excitement ahead of their departure, Rajani stated, “Hockey5s will be a different ball game altogether. Our skills, speed and everything will be tested. It will be challenging for sure, but I think it will really exciting format to play. We’ve got a couple of players in the team who are acquainted with this format, and we’ve had good preparations at the camp. We are looking forward to representing our country in the inaugural edition of the Hockey5s.”
Meanwhile, the Indian men’s team led by Gurinder Singh, will play their opening match against the hosts Switzerland, followed by a match against Pakistan on the opening day. They will then face Malaysia and Poland respectively on 5th June.
“We are really excited to play a different version of hockey at an international level that too in a beautiful country. It’s a fast-paced and challenging format. Many of our players have played this format before at the Youth Olympics, so we are confident of doing well,” Gurinder expressed.
The Indian women’s team will play their opening match against Uruguay at 1800 hrs IST, while the men’s team will take on the hosts Switzerland at 1830 hrs IST.
The opening game of the India women’s team vs Uruguay will be telecast live on Star Sports Select 1 SD+ Select 1 HD whereas the opening game of the Indian men’s team between India vs Switzerland will be telecast on Star Sports First (Eng) + Star Sports Select 1 SD + 1 HD.
