The Australian Hockey League is scheduled to begin from September 28 in Perth, Australia for which today the India 'A' Men and Women Hockey teams left from India. In the league total of 10 teams will participate.
For the preparation of this prestigious League, the men's team was based at Sports Authority of India, Bengaluru while the India 'A' team for women trained at the SAI Centre in Bhopal.
India 'A' men's team:
Vikas Dahiya (goalkeeper ), Harjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Armaan Qureshi, Krishan Pathak, Gurinder Singh, Santa Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vikramjit Singh , Talwinder Singh, Affan Yousuf and Amit Rohidas.
Dahiya said "I think we have a very good mix of players with many of us who have played together for more than four years. There is a great understanding among the players and we have undergone good preparations for the challenge in Australia. The teams we will be playing are quite strong with players of national repute but we are geared up for a good show,"
Before the departure of the team on Saturday Dahiya expressed "With the development squad, the player pool is much larger and there is scope for every player to showcase their abilities and we are aware that good performance in AHL will help players get a call-up for the men's squad. The competition within our team is healthy and strong that each one will undoubtedly give more than their 100 percent,"
The skipper for the India 'A' women's team Preeti Dubey said "Apart from four or five of us in this team, not many girls have had strong international exposure and considering this is the first time that a women's team from India is being sent for the AHL, there is a lot of excitement among the players,"
"The Australians play fast and attacking hockey. While our aim is to perform well in all departments, the AHL will be a very good platform for most of us to understand the demands of fast-paced international hockey. Moving forward, this experience will definitely help us in other international tournaments and we are looking forward to this challenge," she added.
On September 29 the India 'A' men's team will face the Western Australia while the women team will have a face-off with Victoria.
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