Rio Olympics: Resurgent Indian eves face stern test against Great Britain

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug 8 (ANI): After making a spirited comeback against Japan in their opening match at the 2016 Rio Olympics where they enforced a 2-2 draw, the resurgent Indian women's hockey team led by Sushila Chanu will take on Great Britain on Tuesday.

In their historic appearance at the Olympic Games, 36 years after they first played in the Moscow Olympics, the women put up a brave front to comeback strongly after a 0-2 deficit in the first half.

The team will face a stern challenge from Great Britain who had handed a 5-0 white wash when the Indian team toured England in May this year as part of their Olympic preparations. However, women's team Chief Coach Neil Hawgood is confident the team has moved on from that loss and is ready to put up an improved show. "The England tour was an exposure tournament. It was planned to ensure the girls understand their (Great Britain) game. It was the first time this team was ever playing Great Britain and there was a lot that we learnt from that tour," Hawgood stated.

The Bronze medal winners from the 2012 London Olympics, Great Britain, will be aiming higher in Rio and have players who are among the best in the world. They have had a good lead-up to the Olympics with a semi-final finish in the Valencia Hockey World League Semi Final in June 2015 defeating China to book their Rio berth.

They also took the title in the Unibet Euro Hockey Championship in London last August. Their Olympic campaign has got off with an impressive start where they beat the third-ranked Australians 2-1 in their opening encounter.

"Great Britain will be a tough competition for us. We really wanted to win the match against Japan but I am happy with the way we fought back. Britain has some really good players like Alex Danson, Lily Owsley, Kate and Helen Richardson. We need to do better with penalty corner conversion," stated Sushila Chanu, defender and captain of the squad.