Striving to win their maiden World Cup medal, India will begin their campaign at the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup against hosts England on the opening day of the tournament, July 21.
The team led by striker Rani Rampal and coached by Sjoerd Marijne left for London recently. The players looked in good shape on the preparatory tour of Spain, where India drew the five-Test series against the hosts 2-2.
Besides world No. 2 England in Pool B, seventh-ranked USA is the other team that enjoys a higher rank than No. 10 India in the International Hockey Federation (FIH) rankings. Ireland (16th) is the fourth team in the pool.
The team finishing top in each of the four pools will directly qualify for the quarterfinals, while the teams ending up second and third will feature in the crossover games to decide the remaining four quarterfinalists.
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and Spain are the other 12 teams in the fray.
India's best finish at the World Cup came in the inaugural edition of the tournament way back in 1974 when they finished fourth, losing the bronze-medal match to West Germany 0-2.
Interestingly in this edition, 16 of the 18 Indian players will make their World Cup debut. Only skipper Rani and the team's senior-most member Deepika have previously played in a World Cup.
Defending champions Netherlands have won the tournament an unprecedented seven times.
INDIA SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Savita (vice-captain), Rajani Etimarpu
Defenders: Sunita Lakra, Deep Grace Ekka, Deepika, Gurjit Kaur, Reena Khokhar
Midfielders: Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz, Monika, Neha Goyal, Navjot Kaur, Nikki Pradhan
Forwards: Rani Rampal (captain), Vandana Katariya, Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Udita
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