India women's national field hockey team

India
Nickname(s)	Women in Blue, Nabhvarna
Association	Hockey India (2008–present); Indian Hockey Federation (1925–2008);
Confederation	AHF (Asia)
Head Coach	Harendra Singh
Captain	Savita Punia
Most caps	Vandana Katariya (311)
Top scorer	Rani Rampal (120)
Home	Away
FIH ranking
Current	9 3 (12 March 2024)
Highest	6 (June 2022, December 2023)
First international
	Scotland 6–1 India; (Folkestone, England; 30 September 1953)
Biggest win
	India 24–0 Nepal; (Guwahati, India; 7 February 2016)
Biggest defeat
	England 18–0 India; (Sydney, Australia; 23 May 1956)
Olympic Games
Appearances	3 (first in 1980)
Best result	4th (1980, 2020)
World Cup
Appearances	8 (first in 1974)
Best result	4th (1974)
Asian Games
Appearances	11 (first in 1982)
Best result	Champions (1982)
Asia Cup
Appearances	9 (first in 1989)
Best result	Champions (2004, 2017)
Medal record
Asian Games
Asia Cup
Asian Champions Trophy
Commonwealth Games
Pro League

The Indian women's national field hockey team represents India in international field hockey, and is governed by Hockey India. Nabhvarna are currently ranked 6th in the FIH World Rankings, and are ranked as the best team in Asia. They have won the gold medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and 1982 Asian Games. They have also won the Women's Asia Cup twice, i.e. in 2004 and 2017. They also won the Asian Champions Trophy 2016 and 2023.

History

The team's breakthrough performance came at the Women's Hockey World Cup at Mandelieu in 1974, where it finished in 4th place. Their best performance in the Olympic Games was at 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics (where they came in 4th), when a women's event was held for the first time in Olympic history. The team also won the Gold medal at the inaugural 1982 Asian Games held in New Delhi, defeating Korea in the finals. Captain Suraj Lata Devi led the team to the Gold for three consecutive years at different events- during the 2002 Commonwealth Games,^[5] the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, and the 2004 Women's Hockey Asia Cup. Team members were referred to as the "assi (Jasjeet) jaisi koi nahi" or the "Golden Girls of Hockey," after the 2004 win.^[6] The team earned a 3rd-place finish at the 2013 Women's Hockey Asia Cup at Kuala Lumpur defeating China in a shootout.^[7] At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, it finished in 5th place but at 2014 Asian Games, Incheon stunned Japan 2–1 in a tight match to clinch their third bronze medal at the Asian Games.^[8] During the summer of 2015, the team hosted the Round 2 of the 2014–15 Women's FIH Hockey World League and finished on top to qualify for the next stage. At the World League Semi-finals held in Antwerp the team finished in the fifth place beating higher ranked Japan in classification match.^[9] The Indian woman's national field hockey team qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics^[10]^[11] for the first time since the 1980 Summer Olympics.^[10]^[12] They were eliminated in the group stage, however, where they placed 6th.

2002 Commonwealth Games and Chak De! India (2007)

The 2002 Commonwealth Games Squad, led by Captain Suraj Lata Devi, competed in the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The team entered the finals after defeating the New Zealand women's national field hockey team.^[13] and placed first, winning the Gold after they beat the English women's hockey team.^[5]^[14]^[15]

This event served as the inspiration for the 2007 Bollywood film about women's field hockey, Chak De! India starring Shah Rukh Khan (after screenwriter Jaideep Sahni read a short article about it).^[16] Sahni began to model the character of Kabir Khan on hockey coach Maharaj Krishan Kaushik.^[17] After hearing the storyline, Kaushik suggested that Sahni meet hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi (who faced accusations of throwing the match against Pakistan during the 1982 Asian Games).^[18]^[19]^[20] Sahni has stated that he was unaware of Negi's tribulations while writing the script and that the resemblance with Negi's life was entirely coincidental.^[21] Negi affirmed this point stating that he didn't "want to hog the limelight. This movie is not a documentary of Mir Ranjan Negi's life. It is in fact the story of a team that becomes a winning lot from a bunch of hopeless girls".^[22] In response to the fact that the media equated Kabir Khan with Negi, Sahni said that "Our script was written a year and a half back. It is very unfortunate that something, which is about women athletes, has just started becoming about Negi."^[17]

Tokyo Olympics and resurgence

India at the 2020 Summer Olympics for the first time ever,^[23] reached the semi-final in the Women's Hockey Olympic event but failed to bag any medal after they lost to Argentina^[24] in the semi-final and then to Great Britain^[25] in the bronze medal match. Following their performance at the Olympics, the team went to win bronze medals at the 2022 Asia Cup and the Commonwealth Games and a third-place finish in the 2021–22 Pro League. In 2022 India won the first ever FIH Women's Nations Cup. However, they failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics losing to Japan in the bronze medal match at the Olympic Qualifier in Ranchi on 19 January 2024.^[26]^[27]

Tournament history

Major tournaments

Summer Olympics

Year	Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1980	Moscow, USSR	4th	5	2	1	2	9	6
1984	Los Angeles, United States	Did not participate
1988	Seoul, South Korea
1992	Barcelona, Spain
1996	Atlanta, United States
2000	Sydney, Australia	Did not qualify
2004	Athens, Greece
2008	Beijing, China
2012	London, Great Britain
2016	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	12th	5	0	1	4	3	19
2020	Tokyo, Japan	4th	8	3	0	5	12	20
2024	Paris, France	Did not qualify
	Total	4th place	18	5	2	11	24	45

World Cup

Year	Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1974	Mandelieu, France	4th	6	3	0	3	8	6
1976	West Berlin, West Germany	Did not participate
1978	Madrid, Spain	7th	6	2	1	3	5	10
1981	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Did not participate
1983	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	11th	7	1	1	5	6	10
1986	Amstelveen, Netherlands	Did not qualify
1990	Sydney, Australia
1994	Dublin, Ireland
1998	Utrecht, Netherlands	12th	7	0	0	7	9	23
2002	Perth, Australia	Did not qualify
2006	Madrid, Spain	11th	7	1	1	5	9	15
2010	Rosario, Argentina	9th	6	2	0	4	11	23
2014	The Hague, Netherlands	Did not qualify
2018	London, England	8th	5	1	3	1	5	3
2022	Amstelveen, Netherlands Valencia, Spain	9th	6	1	3	2	9	8
	Total	4th place	50	11	9	30	62	98

Commonwealth Games

Year	Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1998	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	4th	7	3	1	3	19	13
2002	Manchester, England		6	4	1	1	12	10
2006	Melbourne, Australia		6	3	1	2	19	8
2010	New Delhi, India	5th	5	3	1	1	15	4
2014	Glasgow, Scotland	5th	5	3	0	2	22	9
2018	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	4th	6	3	0	3	9	12
2022	Birmingham, England		6	3	2	1	14	8
	Total	1 Title	41	22	6	13	110	64

Asian Games

Year	Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1982	New Delhi, India		5	5	0	0	37	1
1986	Seoul, South Korea		5	3	1	1	17	5
1990	Beijing, China	4th	5	2	0	3	8	10
1994	Hiroshima, Japan	4th	5	1	2	2	9	6
1998	Bangkok, Thailand		7	4	1	2	24	11
2002	Busan, South Korea	4th	4	0	0	4	2	12
2006	Doha, Qatar		7	4	0	3	22	10
2010	Guangzhou, China	4th	7	3	0	4	24	7
2014	Incheon, South Korea		5	3	0	2	13	7
2018	Jakarta, Indonesia		6	5	0	1	40	3
2022	Hangzhou, China		6	4	1	1	35	6
	Total	1 Title	62	34	5	23	231	78

Asia Cup

Year	Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1985	Seoul, South Korea	Did not participate
1989	Hong Kong	4th	4	1	0	3	4	11
1993	Hiroshima, Japan		4	2	1	1	8	4
1999	New Delhi, India		6	3	2	1	24	7
2004	New Delhi, India		5	4	1	0	19	3
2007	Hong Kong	4th	6	3	0	3	44	13
2009	Bangkok, Thailand		6	3	2	1	36	9
2013	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia		5	2	1	2	18	5
2017	Kakamigahara, Gifu, Japan		6	5	1	0	28	5
2022	Muscat, Oman		5	3	0	2	22	6
	Total	2 Titles	47	26	8	13	203	63

Asian Champions Trophy

Year	Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
2010	Busan, South Korea		4	1	0	3	8	15
2011	Ordos, China	4th	4	0	0	4	3	16
2013	Kakamigahara, Japan		4	2	0	2	10	6
2016	Singapore		5	3	1	1	10	7
2018	Donghae City, South Korea		5	3	1	1	11	6
2021	Donghae City, South Korea	Withdrew
2023	Ranchi, India		7	7	0	0	27	3
	Total	2 Titles	29	16	2	11	69	53

FIH Pro League

Year	Final Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
2021–22	N/A		14	6	4	4	33	26
2023–24	Qualified
	Total	Third place	14	6	4	4	33	26

FIH Hockey Nations Cup

Year	Final Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
2022	Valencia, Spain		5	4	1	0	9	3
	Total	1 Title	5	4	1	0	9	3

Other tournaments

South Asian Games

Year	Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
2016	Guwahati, India		3	3	0	0	46	1
	Total	1 Title	3	3	0	0	46	1

Defunct tournaments

World League

No.	Year	Final Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1	2012–13	San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina	14th	11	5	2	4	29	30
2	2014–15	Rosario, Argentina	10th	13	8	1	4	46	20
3	2016–17	Auckland, New Zealand	16th	11	3	3	5	12	18
	Total			35	16	6	13	87	68

Champions Challenge

No.	Year	Final Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1	2002	Johannesburg, South Africa		5	2	2	1	10	9
2	2011	Dublin, Ireland	7th	6	2	1	3	11	8
3	2012	Dublin, Ireland	7th	6	2	1	3	13	15
4	2014	Glasgow, Scotland	8th	6	0	0	6	7	22
	Total		Third place	23	6	4	13	41	54

Hockey Series

Year	Final Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
2018–19	Hiroshima, Japan		5	5	0	0	27	4
	Total	1 Title	5	5	0	0	27	4

Afro-Asian Games

Year	Final Host	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
2003	Hyderabad, India		5	4	0	1	26	7
	Total	1 Title	5	4	0	1	26	7