The Indian football team suffered a heartbreaking 5-1 loss to China at the Asian Games 2023 on Tuesday, September 19. Rahul KP equalised for India but eventually, China outplayed the ‘Blue Tigers’ to secure a comfortable victory.
The Indian team, however, received decent support in the stadium, and members of the Indian women’s cricket team were also present in the stands to cheer them during their tough tie. Smriti Mandhana shared a video on her Instagram story where her teammates Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Devika Vaidya were seen backing the Indian team.
“These kids,” the stylish batter captioned her Instagram story and tagged the three cricketers.
The Indian women’s cricket teams will be taking part in the cricket event at the Asian Games, in Hangzhou. It was great to see Harmanpreet and Co. taking time out from their busy schedule and showing their support for the Indian football team. The cricket event started today with Indonesia squaring off against Mongolia. In the second encounter, Malaysia locked horns against Hong Kong.
India Women will start their Asian Games campaign on September 21 against a qualifying team
Notably, major Asian teams like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh will be playing directly in the quarterfinals. India’s first match in the Asian Games is on September 21 against one of the qualifying sides. The ‘Women in Blue’ won the silver medal in the Commonwealth Games last year and will be hopeful of bagging gold in the Asian Games.
Harmanpreet will once again lead the side while Smriti Mandhana will be her deputy. The selectors had to make a last-minute change to the 15-member squad as Anjali Sarvani suffered an injury that ruled her out of the competition. Instead, the talented all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar was named in the side as her replacement. Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, and Saika Ishaque are the four standby players.
The Indian men’s team is also going to play in the Asian Games and they are going to be led by Ruturaj Gaikwad.
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