No leadership group in my team: India coach Harendra

The Indian women's hockey team will look to turn a new leaf at the Asian Champions Trophy beginning in Rajgir, Bihar, in a new sports complex on Monday.

- Avishek Roy

The team has gone through a turbulent phase in the last few years. Their gutsy performance at the Tokyo Olympics where they came close to winning a historic medal before finishing fourth could not inspire them to greater heights. Instead, they slipped to a new low and failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

When Harendra Singh was given the reins in April, he inherited a team that was not only fighting self-belief and injuries, but gave an impression of a disintegrated bunch. Harendra, with his vast experience of coaching both the men's and women teams and also the US team, realised that he will need to put in a lot of work on and off the field and bring about a change in the team culture.

"I felt somewhere it (team unity) was missing and I spoke to them in detail. But I also told them what happened in the past. I am not going to discuss it. I want to start from zero. I have come here to support you. I will support and guide a player-driven programme. If there is a target in our process, then how to achieve that target," Harendra told HT.