Savita, the captain, is better than what she was as a player: Coach

By Paritosh Pramanik

NAGPUR, July 20, 2022

CAPTAINCY, in any team sport, either brings the best out of the leader or it ruins the career due to the added responsibility and pressure.

There are many captains in Indian history who have led from the front and taken their teams to greater heights.

In cricket it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in football it was Sunil Chhetri, in men’s hockey it was PR Sreejesh who all led by example and gave the countrymen some memorable moments.

Indian women hockey team’s goalkeeper Savita Punia, who has been entrusted the responsibility to lead the team after Rani Rampal failed to recover from hamstring injury, has improved her performance since being handed over the baton in the World Cup.

She will be leading the side again at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games starting July 28.

According to Indian team’s chief coach Janneke Schopman, Savita as ‘the captain’ has improved since taking over the mettle and will only get better as the days pass.

Interacting with the media during a virtual press conference after the team reached Nottingham, in the United Kingdom, Schopman said that the team’s performance in the recently concluded Women’s World Cup wasn’t good but they created a lot of chances as well as executed the plans well.

To a query from ‘The Hitavada’ on how important will be the performance of goalkeeper and captain Savita in India’s progress in the CWG, Schopman said she is a player first and captain later.

“Everyone’s performance is important in the team’s progress, so is Savi’s. I have told her many times that she is a player first and then the captain of the side. But at the same time it’s her responsibility to perform to her ability and she knows that very well.

“This Savi (as captain) is better because she is learning and she is growing. She is becoming a better player and is a good leader,” Schopman explained about the ever-improving Indian custodian.

Punia was difficult to breach, especially in shootouts against Canada in the World Cup. She was agile, her reflexes were on cue and her instincts worked where she made a number of saves.

The former Dutch player said that India need to sharpen their skills in the coming matches.

“Our performance at the World Cup wasn’t good in terms of results. But we created a lot of penalty corner chances and played well overall in the tournament. It was our execution that wasn’t the best. We will be focusing on getting our execution right going ahead and prepare accordingly for the CWG. We need to train better for the execution to improve,” stated Schopman.

“There are many reasons for that. We struggled with our injections. It’s a different field than we typically train on. I don’t think we adapted that well.”

However, the 45-year-old coach also remarked that the team is no longer looked down upon in world hockey with the opponents often preferring to take defensive approaches against them.

“Our manner of playing has changed, instead of defending more like earlier, other teams are setting up defensively against us. We are attacking more now,” she added.

“You see a small transition happening when we play teams now that these teams prefer to play more defensively. If you see China, England and Canada, these teams were happily just defending. As a team we have to get used to it mentally that we have less space to attack,” the coach pointed out.

The Indian women's team, led by Savita, begin their campaign on July 29 in Birmingham with their match against Ghana, before playing Wales the next day. They take on England August 2 and Canada on August 3.

The Indian women’s team last won gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games (Manchester) and silver in 2006 (Melbourne).