India’s task of qualifying for 2026 World Cup becomes tougher

custody on her knees, a tired Navneet Kaur stared at the blueness sward of the Gongshu canalize Sports mungo park Stadium as a visibly disappointed Neha Goyal walked back to the dugout quietly. Nearby, Salima Tete watched the Chinese players celebrate the Asia Cup victory and qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

The Indian women’s hockey team cut a sorry figure on Sunday evening after losing the final 1-4 to the hosts in Hangzhou. It wasn’t as if they didn’t try. In fact, India was the only team to score and also take a lead against world No.4 China in the entire tournament.

Just like the Super 4s contest, which India had also lost 1-4, the Salima-led side battled hard against the Paris Olympics silver medallists but eventually ran out of steam in the final quarter.

A team in transition, India was without veteran goalkeeper Savita Punia and drag-flicker Deepika Sehrawat, performing well to undeniably emerge as the second-best team in Asia, only losing to the reigning Asian Games champions. But that isn’t going to be enough.

Ranked No.9 in the world, India had already missed the bus to the Paris Olympics last year. After losing eight successive matches in the European leg of the Pro League, India were relegated to the Nations Cup in June.

Having lost the qualification chance via the Asia Cup, they will have one last chance to make the cut for the quadrennial showpiece in Belgium and Netherlands next year — via the World Cup Qualifiers in February-March. If they miss the bus there too, India will be completely cut off from the top echelons of the sport, pegging them back by many years.

“We will have to see what pool they end up in and who they will play,” former India chief coach Neil Hawgood told HT from Perth. “They should then train for those styles of games. Once the pools (for qualifiers) come out, they should decide what sort of tours need to be looked at to play against the styles they will come up against.”

Hawgood was at the centre of the rise of the team around a decade back when India qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics after a gap of 36 years. Five years later, the then Rani Rampal-led side finished an unprecedented fourth at the Olympics, missing the bronze by a whisker. But Tokyo seems like a distant memory now.

“There are a lot of upsides within this group, but there are obviously recurring issues that they must recognise which need to be addressed. They always get caught behind in defence and hardly intercept,” added Hawgood. “If the midfield loses the ball carrying into attack, there is always space behind to be counterattacked through the middle of the field.”

Chief coach Harendra Singh has tried to address the issues but it just hasn’t worked out yet. Having taken over after Janneke Schopman’s exit in April 2024, the chief coach guided the team to the Asian Champions Trophy title in November 2024. He arranged a friendly tour of Australia in April-May followed by an exposure trip to the Netherlands in May-June.

Harendra has also brought in legendary drag-flicker Taeke Taekema to coach the likes of Deepika and Manisha Chauhan. To further improve the PC battery, the 55-year-old sent the two drag-flickers for a camp to Amsterdam to train under PC expert Toon Siepman, who also coaches Dutch star Yibbi Jansen, who top-scored with nine goals at Paris 2024.

Qualifying for the World Cup is slightly easier as it has 16 teams in comparison to the Olympics which only allows 12. But it has become a big task for the team now.

Having not qualified for the 2014 World Cup, India played the last two editions in 2018 and 2022 where they ended eighth and joint ninth respectively. The management now has about five-and-a-half months to turn things around to put the team on track to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

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