India's young hockey squad rises to the World Cup challenge, driven by coach's faith.

When Bichu Devi Kharibam was a younger, upcoming hockey goalkeeper playing through the junior ranks, she was hot tempered, ready for a confrontation on the field, eager to give it back as good as she gets. Over time, the anger has tempered. On field flare-ups have given way to off-field, post-match discussions.

“No goalkeeper would want the opposite side to score,” says the now 25-year-old about her maturity as a player. “But we make sure we discuss that (the goal) post the game as a team. That’s happened (for me) since I became a senior (player).”

Kharibam was part of the Indian women’s hockey team that earlier in March qualified for the World Cup, which will be held in Belgium and the Netherlands from 15 August, through a qualifying tournament held in Hyderabad.

She was part of a young Indian squad that included, besides her, players like Sakshi Rana, Deepika Soreng, Sunelita Toppo and Baljeet Kaur. The team had a—relatively—new coach in Sjoerd Marijne, who had taken India to a fourth-place finish in the Tokyo Olympics but was then replaced. The coach, with a World Cup slot at stake, placed his faith in a bunch of youngsters who played five matches, drew one and lost just one—to England in the final.

“He (Marijne) said one thing to me—be patient and calm,” recalls Kharibam, soon after winning the Hockey India (HI) goalkeeper of the year (2025) award in Delhi last week. “I am sometimes aggressive. Extra aggression leads to mistakes. The coach had seen it and said that all I want from you is patience.”

The team’s youthfulness had its advantages. Toppo, who will soon turn 19 and has already played 47 international matches with the women’s team, and Kaur, 25, who has 43 matches under her belt, are especially quick in the midfield, making incisive forays into the rival half. Toppo scored twice, against Uruguay and Scotland, both off penalty corners while Rana had one goal against Wales.

“As a midfielder, my role was to be in contact with the defence and attack,” says Rana, 18. “It was to keep control, aid teamwork and hold communication. It was about how I could give speed to attack.”

“My job was not to hold the ball for too long. He (Marijne) prefers one touch play,” adds Rana.

Toppo had first played with her idol Lalremsiami Hmarzote in the Asian Champions Trophy in 2024 and was glad she was in the team in Hyderabad too. Kharibam mentions multiple times the influence of stalwart Savita Punia, India’s first choice goalkeeper who did not play in Hyderabad.

Toppo, a prodigious talent from Kukuda Sundargarh in Odisha, who was among top 5 most expensive players in the 2024 Hockey India League (HIL) auctions, was told to use her speed and use space to pass to strikers. “The coach said before the ball comes, plan your space, connect with the striker, to know where the next ball would go.”

One Level Up

Kharibam and Kaur have been with the Indian team since 2022, Toppo since 2024, and Rana starting with the FIH Pro League in February 2025. The transition—from juniors to the women’s team—has its challenges.Teams competing internationally are naturally stronger. It takes time for players with less experience to adapt to newer conditions and teammates. The stakes are higher, games are more strategic.

“Savita and I have played (together) for years. But we don’t control who plays the game and who does not. That is the coach’s decision,” says Kharibam, who was part of the bronze-medal-winning team of the Hangzhou Asian Games of 2022. “No jealousy or anger—we don’t have that in the team.”

When she made it to the Indian team for the first time in 2022, the goalkeeper from Manipur recalls she didn’t get to play much but the team’s more established players, Punia included, taught her the virtues of waiting her turn.

She has changed a lot since being an animated junior who wore her heart on her sleeve. “When there is more responsibility, you make more connections with other players. We were all younger and hot-blooded once,” she says.

The on-field anger or aggression needs direction. Kaur says that she has always been a driven, fearless player, who uses her anger as a tool to fight hard. Now she channels that towards her natural speed.

“The difference,” says Rana, “is in domestic hockey, we work hard but not with this kind of strategy. Also, the speed is (higher) in international.”

She adds that while she retains her strengths, dodges and skilful stickwork, she would in the past get nervous upon making a mistake. “If the ball gets taken (from her), I would stop for a moment,” she says, angry at having lost possession. But she has learnt to move on quickly now—a by-product of experience and experienced teammates.

Playing The World Cup

The Indian women’s best place finish, fourth, was in the inaugural World Cup in 1974. In the seven of the 14 World Cups they have participated in since, they have never made it to the semi-finals. In the last edition, in Spain and the Netherlands in 2022, the team finished ninth.

This makes the 2026 edition equally challenging for the women, given that the Netherlands, which is hosting this edition, has won the event nine times, including the last three in a row.

For a lot of the younger players, if they get selected, the World Cup would be a big first test. Kharibam and Kaur were in the team that played the Junior World Cup in South Africa in 2021 and finished fourth. Toppo and Rana were in the 2023 Junior World Cup in Santiago where India finished ninth.

Major tournaments bring bigger pressures, as Kharibam says. Players at the top levels are smarter, which makes the goalkeeper’s role challenging. “You have to understand the (rival) players’ reactions and their body language.

Draggers and hitters are not just targeting goalkeepers, but gaps in the last line of defence.”

But the advantage of having a young team, barring the experience, is fitness. All the players who spoke to Lounge mentioned how superior their fitness was. For these young players, the qualifiers were a learning experience.

“We won together and we lost (one match) together,” says Kaur.

Arun Janardhan (@iArunJ) is a Mumbai-based journalist who covers sports, business leaders and lifestyle.