India women's hockey team do not fear top-ranked teams anymore: Rani

India's success against top-ranked nations this year has instilled a new self-belief and helped the women's hockey team shed its underdog tag, feels skipper Rani Rampal.

Indian women's hockey team won a historic silver at the 18th Asian Games and another silver at the Asian Champions Trophy this year. They also finished at the quarterfinals at the World Cup in London and ended at the fourth place at the Commonwealth Games.

"Though we would have preferred to win gold medal at the 18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang as well as the Asian Champions Trophy, I believe overall, we had a good outing in 2018," Rani said.

"Beating England 2-1 at the Commonwealth Games, a 1-1 draw against them at their home turf during the Women's World Cup in London and a 0-1 loss to Australia in the semi-final at Gold Coast has given the team tremendous confidence and a self-belief.

"We can give top teams a run for their money in big-ticket tournaments. We are no longer considered an underdog team by our opponents and that's our biggest takeaway from 2018."
"I'm quite confident if we continue to improve at the pace we are at this moment, we stand a good chance of climbing up the World Ranking further."