Rutaja Dadaso Pisal: Exuding Promise for the Future!

Rutaja Dadaso Pisal has left no one in doubt that she is an exceedingly exciting prospect for the Indian women’s hockey team. The inaugural women’s Hockey India League was a strong advertisement of what the talented forward from Maharashtra’s Satara district is capable of.

The manner in which the 22-year-old striker promised so much during the inaugural women’s Hockey India League, culminated in a superb brace in the final that propelled Odisha Warriors to glory, getting the better of Soorma Hockey Club by the odd goal in three.

Rutaja took the international hockey stage like a fish to water, making her strong presence felt in the India leg of the 2024-25 Pro League at Bhubaneshwar. She made her senior international debut in the 2nd leg tie against England, scoring her maiden international goal (her team’s second goal) in a game India had lost in a shootout 1-2 (2-2).

The Kolki village girl again found her scoring stick in the Pro league 2nd leg tie against Spain in a game India had lost 3-4. Her Pro League performance reinforced one thing – his HIL exploits were no flash in the pan.

Rutaja’s sporting talents were first spotted in Kolki village by Vikas Bhujbal (a former volleyball player and a sports teacher) – so impressed was with her running attributes, Bhujbal asked her to attend the summer athletics camp – subsequently, she was sent to Pune-based Krida Prabodhini School in 2011 for selection trials. Interestingly, it was at Pune that her life took a different turn as she heeded to the suggestions of former Olympian and Krida Prabodhini School hockey coach Ajit Lakra, and opted for hockey over running.

It may be worth mentioning that Rituja is not the only one from Satara to make waves on the hockey pitch – her team-mates Akshata Dhekale and Vaishnavi Phalke also hail from Satara. Employed with Union Bank of India, Rutaja has grown in leaps and bounds since making her international debut (across any age-group) at the 2022 Women’s FIH Hockey5s at Lausanne, where India had finished 4th.

She was also a part of the 2023 Hockey Junior Asia Cup-winning team at Kakamigahara – the youngster made a strong impact at the 2024 FIH Hockey5s World Cup at Muscat, where the Indian eves capped off a runners-up finish, scoring 7 goals.

1992 Olympian Ajit Lakra, who took Rituja under his wings at the Pune-based Krida Prabodhini School, is upbeat about Rituja going places on the world hockey stage. “I first came into contact with Rituja in 2011 when I asked her to opt for hockey even though she had good running skills. When she first came to the Krida Prabodhini School, she was a typically village girl bundle of nerves and shy – she used to stay in the school hostel and train for two sessions in the morning and afternoon before and after school hours,” recalls Lakra, who also represented India at the 1990 Lahore World Cup as well as featured in the 1989 New Delhi Asia Cup.

The 59-year-old veteran hockey coach believes his ward only needs to stay focused. “Rutuja is always willing to raise the training bar and very disciplined. She has solid passing skills – retackling is her forte and she knows how to win the ball from the opposition. Playing major tournaments such as the World Cup or the Olympics is one thing, and winning a medal is quite another. She must keep working hard and focused on the long-term goals of the team,” he says.

Even HIL champions Odisha Warriors’ coach Janneke Schopan is all praise for Rutuja. “I know Rutuja for a long time and I can tell you that she is super tough. At the Junior Asia Cup, she got hit and broke her nose but played the whole tournament with a mask,” she says.

Rutuja’s HIL performance should spur her on to bigger things, insists Schopman. “I think she was getting scoring opportunities in the pool phase of the HIL but she was not able to profit from them. I guess the HIL final was her ‘day’ as she came to the party.

The expectations are only to get bigger as it is the case with the emergence of a talented youngster. The road ahead would be exciting but tough as well as Rutuja would be competing for places with the likes of Navneet Kaur, Deepika Soreng, Sangita Kumari, Deepika Sehrawat, Beauty Dungdung, and Mumtaz Khan for the Europe leg of the 2024-25 Pro League.