FIH Women’s World Cup 2026 — India sheds China fear, but lacks experience to complete the job

India may have suffered heavy defeats to China in recent times, but it showed an ability to compete strongly in Sunday’s encounter. | Photo Credit: X (@TheHockeyIndia)

The last time the Indian women’s team faced-off against China, it was hammered 4-1 in the Asia Cup final. In the league game before that, it was the same scoreline. In fact, China won their last four meetings with an aggregate of 14-4.

China, after all, ranked fourth in the world, was the reigning Asian Games gold medallist and had finished with a silver medal in the 2024 Olympics.

“In the past meetings, sometimes it did creep up in your mind that, ‘They have an Olympic silver, you wonder how good they will be,’” India’s Navneet Kaur admitted.

But, on Sunday, when the two sides clashed in their World Cup opener, for the first two quarters of their 2-2 draw, world no. 9, India, played with a swagger that belied rankings and recent results.

Navneet was in the forefront of it, opening the scoring with a deft finish, further underlining her growing stature as a formidable forward and as a leader of this side.

“We have changed that mindset from then to now,” she reflected. “It doesn’t matter who is first or last, we need to play our game against every team, be it Netherlands or China or South Africa.”

The newfound belief came through in the second quarter when India combined its skill and workrate to have its best spell, which yielded a deserved lead at the half-time break.

But the third quarter was one-way traffic with China cutting out the channels to deprive India from playing out through the wings, using its wide forwards. India’s repeated attempts of taking the same route in the hope of relieving pressure were unsuccessful. Just as India was setting up its penalty corner defense from which China equalised, Navneet was seen trying to tell her teammates that they needed something different.

“In the first half, we were playing from the sides but they blocked that line and did not allow us to play from outside. So I was telling them, ‘they are not letting us play from there, so we need to play out from the centre’. So I needed to make them aware of the fact that it is not the only way to play,” she said.

While India has overcome the psychological barrier of playing against China, it hasn’t found the experience to turn the belief into victories.

Though India has the most 200-plus capped internationals in this World Cup, it also has several emerging talents. Of the 17 players who featured in the game, eight were playing their first World Cup game. They had averaged 38 international appearances each before their World Cup debuts.

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China also had nine tournament debutants but they averaged nearly 72 international appearances each and only two had fewer than 50 caps. Even among the inexperienced, they had a taste for winning on the big stage. From the nine, two of them were part of both 2024 Olympics and 2022 Asian Games squads, while four featured only in the Olympics.

Even in the first half, China was given a way into the game in the final seconds of the opening quarter when defender Shilpi Dabas, playing only her sixth senior level game, recklessly brought down an attacker inside the circle, which resulted in a penalty stroke. 

Skipper Salima Tete, too, who has now led India in close to 50 games, should have exercised better judgement when she decided to opt for a referral for Shilpi’s foul, which in the end, likely denied a PC in the final seconds of the game.

Salima’s desperation was evident when she stated that, “We wanted to beat a team like China and we had the hunger for it today. We wanted to win at any cost.” But India would be more than satisfied with the point against a top class side. 

At the start of 2026, there wasn’t much to suggest that this team could have a meaningful year, but there are signs emerging under Sjoerd Marijne. Before the game, Marijne downplayed expectations, stating that finishing in the top eight would be a good outcome. This result could only add fuel to India’s rekindled optimism that it can prove to be a surprise package.