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	Janneke Schopman
Assistant coach(es)	Soundarya Yendala
Manager	Ankita Billava Suresh; Tushar Khandekar
Captain	Savita Punia
Most caps	Vandana Katariya (303)
Top scorer	Rani Rampal (120)
Home	Away
FIH ranking
Current	6 1 (2 December 2023)
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

Team England vs Team India at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

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.

Tournament history

Major tournaments

Summer Olympics

No	Year	Host	Position
1	1980	Moscow, USSR	4th
2	1984	Los Angeles, United States	DNQ
3	1988	Seoul, South Korea	DNQ
4	1992	Barcelona, Spain	DNQ
5	1996	Atlanta, United States	DNQ
6	2000	Sydney, Australia	DNQ
7	2004	Athens, Greece	DNQ
8	2008	Beijing, China	DNQ
9	2012	London, Great Britain	DNQ
10	2016	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	12th
11	2020	Tokyo, Japan	4th

World Cup

No	Year	Host	Position
1	1974	Mandelieu, France	4th
2	1976	West Berlin, West Germany	DNP
3	1978	Madrid, Spain	7th
4	1981	Buenos Aires, Argentina	DNP
5	1983	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	11th
6	1986	Amstelveen, Netherlands	DNQ
7	1990	Sydney, Australia	DNQ
8	1994	Dublin, Ireland	DNQ
9	1998	Utrecht, Netherlands	12th
10	2002	Perth, Australia	DNQ
11	2006	Madrid, Spain	11th
12	2010	Rosario, Argentina	9th
13	2014	The Hague, Netherlands	DNQ
14	2018	London, England	8th
15	2022	Amstelveen, Netherlands Valencia, Spain	9th

Commonwealth Games

No	Year	Host	Position
1	1998	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	4th
2	2002	Manchester, England
3	2006	Melbourne, Australia
4	2010	New Delhi, India	5th
5	2014	Glasgow, Scotland	5th
6	2018	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	4th
7	2022	Birmingham, England

Asian Games

No	Year	Host	Position
1	1982	New Delhi, India
2	1986	Seoul, South Korea
3	1990	Beijing, China	4th
4	1994	Hiroshima, Japan	4th
5	1998	Bangkok, Thailand
6	2002	Busan, South Korea	4th
7	2006	Doha, Qatar
8	2010	Guangzhou, China	4th
9	2014	Incheon, South Korea
10	2018	Jakarta, Indonesia
11	2022	Hangzhou, China

Asia Cup

No	Year	Host	Position
1	1985	Seoul, South Korea	DNP
2	1989	Hong Kong	4th
3	1993	Hiroshima, Japan
4	1999	New Delhi, India
5	2004	New Delhi, India
6	2007	Hong Kong	4th
7	2009	Bangkok, Thailand
8	2013	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
9	2017	Kakamigahara, Gifu, Japan
10	2022	Muscat, Oman

Asian Champions Trophy

No	Year	Host	Position
1	2010	Busan, South Korea
2	2011	Ordos, China	4th
3	2013	Kakamigahara, Japan
4	2016	Singapore
5	2018	Donghae City, South Korea
6	2021	Donghae City, South Korea	Withdrew
7	2023	Ranchi, India

FIH Pro League

No	Year	Final Host	Position
1	2021–22	N/A
2	2023–24	Qualified

FIH Hockey Nations Cup

No	Year	Final Host	Position
1	2022	Valencia, Spain

Other tournaments

South Asian Games

No	Year	Host	Position
1	2016	Guwahati, India

Defunct tournaments

World League

No	Year	Final Host	Position
1	2012–13	San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina	14th
2	2014–15	Rosario, Argentina	10th
3	2016–17	Auckland, New Zealand	16th

Champions Challenge

No	Year	Host	Position
1	2002	Johannesburg, South Africa
2	2011	Dublin, Ireland	7th
3	2012	Dublin, Ireland	7th
4	2014	Glasgow, Scotland	8th

Hockey Series

No	Year	Host	Position
1	2018–19	Hiroshima, Japan

Afro-Asian Games

No	Year	Host	Position
1	2003	Hyderabad, India