Neeraj Chopra finally breached 90-metre mark
India formally awarded Commonwealth Games 2030 hosting rights
Divya Deshmukh became Women's Chess World Cup Champion at 19
Men's hockey team won Asia Cup before disappointing in FIH Pro League
The year after the Paris Olympics was supposed to be a relatively uneventful one for Indian sports, with a lighter event calendar. But can the Indian sporting landscape ever really be bereft of drama?
Controversies were as frequent as they were sudden, national federations continued to make the news for all the wrong reasons, and heartening highs were repeatedly offset by crushing lows. But amidst all the gloom, hope sprang eternal courtesy avenues like chess and women's cricket.
With 2025 drawing to a close, let us review the highlights and major talking points from Indian sports, across disciplines:
Ladies First
Having fallen short on multiple occasions, the Indian women's cricket team finally became champions of the world on the fateful night of November 3. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side vanquished the formidable Australia in the semis, before defeating a spirited South Africa in the final to set off nationwide celebrations. The historic, unprecedented victory promises to change the narrative around Indian cricket, which has been dominated by the men for decades, by default.
The men, themselves had a mixed year. The ODI side lifted its third Champions Trophy title, and the T20 team won the Asia Cup, marred by a raging handshake controversy that has led to the trophy not reaching Indian hands even two months after.
But the Test team slumped to an embarrassing 0-2 series whitewash at home against the Proteas, raising speculation about Gautam Gambhir's future as head coach.
More Questions Than Answers
The Indian football crisis deepened, with women's and junior men's teams performing despite, not because of the system. The Indian Super League showed no signs of revival, and months after it was suspended, the state of clubs, footballers and other stakeholders remained precarious.
To compound fans' woes, the senior men's team suffered its first defeat against Bangladesh in 22 years, finishing last in an AFC Asian Cup qualifying group with Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Singapore, countries with more modest resources and far smaller pools of players.
But in sharp contrast to their senior counterparts, the India U17 men's football team sealed its AFC Under-17 Asian Cup 2026 berth. Before that, the senior women's team secured a direct berth to the AFC Women's Asian Cup, and the women's U20 team made the cut for the AFC U20 Women's Asian Cup for the first time in 20 years.
90 Not Out
For the last few years, Neeraj Chopra was plagued with an incessant 90-metre poser: when (and if) would he breach that elusive mark? India's golden spearhead answered that query once and for all with a personal best throw of 90.23m at the Doha Diamond League.
A couple of months later, he fulfilled another dream of his: hosting a world-class javelin throw event in India. The Neeraj Chopra Classic was a definite success, with over 14,000 spectators turning up at Bengaluru's Sree Kanteerava Stadium to witness Neeraj winning gold at the eponymous event.
Global Ambitions
Hosting its first-ever World Para Athletics Championships, India finished with a record haul of 22 medals — six gold, nine silver and seven bronze — to end up 10th in the final standings at the JLN Stadium.
The event was looked at as a stepping stone towards organizing more marquee competitions in the country, especially given an impending candidature for the 2036 Olympics and the formal awarding of the 2030 Commonwealth Games to Ahmedabad.
India Vs India
The spectacular success story of Indian chess continued, with Divya Deshmukh becoming its latest protagonist. The 19-year-old from Nagpur defeated veteran Koneru Humpy in an all-Indian FIDE Women's World Cup final to clinch the title. This was India's first-ever triumph in the tournament and was made sweeter by Divya achieving the Grandmaster norm by the end of it.
Highs And Lows
Injuries were the bane of Indian badminton in 2025. A persistent foot issue cut short PV Sindhu's season, while HS Prannoy also had a frustrating year which included a a side strain that forced him out of the European leg in October.
Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen ended a difficult stretch on the circuit by clinching his first title of the year in the form of the BWF Australian Open Super 500. Later, India's ace women's doubles pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand successfully defended their Syed Modi International title in Lucknow.
Mixed Bag
The Indian men's hockey team won the Asia Cup after an eight-year wait, punching their ticket to the 2026 World Cup in the process. Their performance in the FIH Pro League was not as reassuring, however.
India struggled in the European leg of the league and finished eighth out of nine teams to avoid relegation by a whisker. The women's side, too fared poorly in the Pro League, suffering eight consecutive defeats to be relegated to Nations Cup.
Later in the year, the junior men's provided a good account of themselves, reaching the semi-finals of the FIH Junior World Cup in Chennai before going down tamely to seven-time champions Germany. Their women counterparts won two out of three games in the group stage, yet found themselves out of reckoning for the Junior Women's World Cup quarters.
Weighty Issues
Indian wrestling went along its controversy-ridden ways. The national federation suspended Olympic medallist Aman Sehrawat for failing to make weight at the World Championships in Zagreb, before eventually revoking the suspension following an apology letter from Sehrawat.
On the other hand, Antim Panghal, who was also in the eye of a storm last year when her sister was caught in the Olympic Games Village without accreditation, redeemed herself with a bronze medal at the prestigious event.
The year to come has a number of major events lined up, including the T20 World Cup and the FIFA World Cup. Indian athletes will again be expected to perform, with or without institutional support. How well they do remains to be seen, but either way, rest assured that drama won't be in short supply.
