Of a porous defence and missed chances

Harendra Singh was upbeat before leaving for Europe in late May. The India women's chief coach appeared confident about the team's chances of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup via the Pro League, having missed the bus for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

- Sandip Sikdar

NEW DELHI:

The optimism seemed justified. The team management had put in a lot of effort in the national camps in the first half of the year. Fresh blood had been injected in the team. An Australia tour for friendlies was organised. Dutch drag-flick legend Taeke Taekema was brought in regularly to train India's penalty corner (PC) specialists and Deepika Sehrawat and Manisha Chauhan were sent to the Netherlands to train under famous PC coach Toon Siepman.

But when the time came to put all that into practice, the Salima Tete-led outfit failed to deliver and was shockingly relegated from the Pro League to the Nations Cup after finishing last in the nine-team elite competition. After 16 games across five months, India won just two, losing 11 and drawing three to be relegated.

In the European leg, India lost seven games out of eight and also lost in the shootout in the only draw they managed against Argentina, who qualified for the World Cup after finishing second. Netherlands won the league but had already qualified as hosts.