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The Indian team will face Australia on Sunday (23 August) in an important match of the FIH Women's Hockey World Cup 2026. Despite a good performance against Olympic and World champion Netherlands on Friday, Team India had to face defeat by 0-2. This was the first defeat of the team captained by Salima Tete in this World Cup. The defense and especially the goalkeepers performed brilliantly, otherwise India could have suffered a bigger defeat. The Indian team is at fourth position in Pool-E.

The Netherlands team has qualified for the semi-finals. Now only one team from Pool-E can go to the next round. Team India will have to win against Australia at any cost to make it to the semi-finals. In a way, this match is a virtual quarter-final. However, before this, a match will be played between Netherlands and China, the result of which will decide whether India and Australia will have a chance to reach the semi-finals or not.

What is the equation?

Under the new format, India does not have to play Olympic silver medalist China. This is because there has been a match between the two teams in the first round and due to it being a draw, India has one point. The match between China and Australia has been a draw, due to which China has two points and Australia has one point. Before the India-Australia match, if the Netherlands team beats China or plays a draw, then after defeating Australia, India will reach the semi-finals.

Whereas if China loses and the match between India and Australia is a draw, the decision will be taken on the basis of goal average. China has so far conceded three goals and scored three, giving it a goal average of zero while India has scored two goals and conceded four, giving it an average of minus two. Australia has scored three goals and conceded five, giving it an average of minus two. In such a situation, India will have to pray for China to lose by a big margin.

How is the recent performance of the Indian team?

The Indian team, which toured Australia before winning the FIH Nations Cup in New Zealand in June this year, played four close matches against the two-time world champions, losing two and winning one. There was a draw there.

Australia's performance graph was not very good last season. They finished eighth in the 2025–26 Pro-League. It also finished second after the host team in the World Cup qualifiers in Santiago, Chile. In such a situation, the Indian team has a golden opportunity to defeat it and reach the semi-finals.

India, ranked ninth in the world rankings, has impressed with its performance so far. In the last pool match which ended in a goalless draw against England, the defense along with goalkeepers Bichu Devi and Savita had saved 12 penalty corners. After this, Netherlands's Yibby Jansen, considered the world's best drag-flicker, was also stopped at just one goal.

India's defense is strong

This is the first World Cup of Team India's 11 players, considering that their performance so far can be called adventurous. By holding a big team like China to a draw in the very first match, this team had indicated that it has not come just to participate in the tournament. After this, it won 6-1 over South Africa and made it to the second round by holding England to a goalless draw in the last match.

The defense has not only performed well with Savita, who has played 317 international matches, the most experienced player of this tournament, and Bichu, who saved the goal in the last 30 seconds against England, the forward line led by Navneet Kaur has also created many chances. India has a drag-flicker like Deepika, who has scored six goals in the FIH Nations Cup. India will have to focus on creating and converting more penalty corners. Sunelita Toppo, Baljeet Kaur, Sakshi, Lalremsiami, Neha have all performed well without taking pressure and coach Shored Marin will expect them to go one step further against Australia.

What does the coach of Team India have to say?

The Netherlands team continuously attacked the Indian goal but could not score a single field goal. First rusher Salima Tete also displayed tremendous agility and saved at least two goals. Indian team coach Shard Marin praised the team's performance after the match but said that playing high-pressure matches for two consecutive days had an impact on the team. Marin said, 'We played two big matches on two consecutive days. I am not saying that if this had not happened we would have won but in the end technical mistakes were made by the players. The team showed good will but should have capitalized on the opportunities.