After qualifying for the upcoming Women’s Hockey Junior Asia Cup 2024, Bangladesh head coach Zahid Hossain Raju has set a new target of confirming a spot in the next edition of the Women’s FIH Hockey Junior World Cup.

The junior (U-21) women’s hockey team brought huge success from the recently concluded Women’s Junior AHF Cup 2024 as they became runners-up among the seven participating teams as well as confirmed a spot in the Women’s Hockey Junior Asia Cup, expected to be held in October.
Bangladesh women’s team, who played in international competition for only the second time, beat Thailand, Hong Kong China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Singapore by 5-4, 2-1, 7-2, 10-1 and 7-1 respectively while they lost to Chinese Taipei 0-3 goals in the junior AHF Cup.

“If you ask me about our target, I will say it is to qualify for the next women’s World Cup. We had a goal to qualify for Asia Cup while playing AHF Cup, so while we go to play Asia Cup, definitely we will play to qualify for the World Cup,” Raju told The Daily Sun on Wednesday.
“Practically it is possible. We, the five teams, from the AHF Cup joined the top five Asian teams in the Asia Cup. We beat all the teams in the AHF Cup except Chinese Taipei. If we beat Chinese Taipei and one or two top teams in the Asia Cup, we can make it,” he added.

Raju, who is also a Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP) coach, has been working with this team for a long time.
While asked about his next preparation plan, he said, “They (players) need training and practice matches. If they play one or two matches against teams like India, China and Japan before the Asia Cup, they will understand the entire scenario, intensity and opponents.”
“I will definitely share my plans with the federation in detail, though they are also well aware of it. The federation will call us (players and coaches) soon after the vacation. There will be a reception for the team, we will talk about the next goal there,” he added.
“The federation is planning to conduct the women’s camp and to start the women’s league at the same time. It will also be helpful in their preparation. In the meantime, we have to play those practice matches if possible. Overall, I’m hopeful about the team in the upcoming Asia Cup,” he concluded.