The India’s women’s hockey team had a dream run at the Tokyo Olympics last year, reaching the semi-finals and eventually finishing fourth after losing 3-4 to England in the bronze medal match. Interestingly, they play England in their first group match of the World Cup (July 1-17) in The Netherlands on Sunday, and coach Jannekke Schopman is hoping it’s the start of yet another dream performance. 

“I always talk about dream goals and a podium finish would be amazing, but having said that, there are at least 10 teams who can finish on the podium at this World Cup. Our group is very strong. England [World No. 4] are a very good team in attack. We struggled in both the games against them in Tokyo. I hope we can put up a better defence than we did. China are our Asian rivals and New Zealand are an unknown quantity, who tend to do well in big events,” Schopman told mid-day on Tuesday, analysing India’s Group B in the 16-team tournament.