On Tuesday, September 19, the Indian football team suffered an upsetting 5-1 loss against China at the Asian Games 2023. India’s Rahul KP leveled, but China outplayed the ‘Blue Tigers’ to clinch a comfortable victory.
From representing to cheering for India
The Indian squad enjoyed respectable crowd support. Indian women’s cricket team players Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Devika Vaidya, and Jemimah Rodrigues were also part of the crowd cheering on the Indian football team from the stands during their match against China.
Harmanpreet, Devika, and Jemimah can be seen enjoying the football game in the stadium in the video that Smriti Mandhana published on her official Instagram account.
Gearing Up for the Challenge
The Indian women’s cricket teams will compete in the Asian Games cricket competition in Hangzhou.
Notably, important Asian teams including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India are seeded directly to the quarterfinals. On September 21, India will play its opening Asian Games match against a team from the qualifying round. The Women in Blue, who brought home a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games the previous year, will surely aim for a gold medal at the Asian Games.
Harmanpreet Singh will head the team once more, with Smriti Mandhana as her deputy. Anjali Sarvani had an injury that forced her to withdraw from the competition, forcing the selectors to make a last-minute alteration to the 15-member squad.
Instead, Pooja Vastrakar, the talented all-rounder, was picked to replace her.
Women’s squad for 19th Asian Games: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy, Pooja Vastrakar.Standby list of players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque.
