Indian Men's Hockey Team had a disappointing world cup in 2026, while Indian's Women gave their best performance in over fifty years
Indian Men's team will open their campaign on 20th September against Indonesia
Indian Women's team will open their campaign on 20th September against Uzbekistan
The Indian hockey team has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence over the past decade. During this period, they have won back-to-back Olympic bronze medals, claimed gold at the Asian Games, Asia Cup, and Asia Champions Trophy, and finished with a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Despite that, the men’s hockey team has found itself in a bit of a slump, performing miserably at this year's Hockey World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands. They finished 8th in the competition, losing all three games in the 2nd round to heavyweights, the Netherlands, Argentina and even England. Then they lost the 7th-place match to Belgium on penalties.
Harmanpreet Singh’s side will look to bounce back. They are defending champions and the best-placed team in the competition and will be overwhelming favorites to defend their title. A positive result will help them get an automatic qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
India needs to learn from the disappointing experience at the World Cup and then move on to focus on their upcoming matches at the Asian Games. They have a great record against all the teams in the competition, though anything can happen on the day.
India Start their Campaign Against Indonesia
India will look to open their campaign against Indonesia tomorrow at Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium. They thumped Indonesia 17-0 at the 2018 Asian Games. This looks like an easy match-up for the Team in blue. Their real test will come against Japan, who are currently ranked 17th in the world, and South Korea, who are ranked 23rd.
Indian coach Craig Fulton knows the challenge that the Japanese and Koreans will pose. He wants his team to apply here what they learned from their World Cup campaign. He is counting on his team to do so.
“These (World Cup outing) are lessons, and the only way to treat them as lessons learned is to turn that learning into action. That's what we've got to do now. We've discussed everything, gone through everything and highlighted areas needing improvement. At the same time, it's now about action."
After Indonesia, the Indian men will face Sri Lanka on September 22, South Korea on September 24, Japan on September 26 and Bangladesh on September 28.
While the men look to learn from mistakes and move on, the women look to build on their World Cup campaign.
World Cup Campaign Gives Indian Women’s Hockey Team A Blueprint To Work With
While the men’s team struggled and underperformed by their recent standards, the Indian Women’s Hockey Team outperformed their expectations and finished 5th in the 2026 FIH World Cup. This was their best finish since 1974, when they finished 4th.
India will open their campaign tomorrow against Uzbekistan, followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and Singapore. Japanese team, which is 11th in the World Ranking, will be India’s biggest challenge in the group stage.
But the real challenge will come against China when they meet in the next round. They are the highest-placed team in the Asian Games, currently ranked 4th in the World. Chinese team won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics, for which the Indian women failed to qualify.
But their recent resurgence under recently returned Sjoerd Marijne has helped India exponentially. They managed to hold China to a 2-2 draw in the World Cup.
While the Indian men’s team and their coach are keen to learn from their World Cup experience and then move on, Indian women’s team coach Sjoerd Marijne is taking a different approach.
Sjoerd Marijne Takes a Different Route from Craig Fulton
Rather than asking his players to put their World Cup success behind them, Marijne wants them to embrace and celebrate it. He believes the team should take pride in what they achieved at this year’s World Cup, soak in the accomplishment, and use it as motivation before turning their focus to the next challenge.
"We did something remarkable and historical, but we have to move on to the next tournament… You have to close a chapter before you move to the next one”.
Led by captain Salima Tete, the Indian women will be aiming to improve upon their bronze-medal finish at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and challenge for only their second Asian Games gold medal.
