FIH Pro League: Under pressure Indian women look to snap 6-match losing streak

BERLIN: The Indian women’s hockey team would look to break its six-match losing streak and avoid relegation from the FIH Pro League with positive results against China, starting with the first match here on Saturday.

The Indian women are currently placed at the bottom of the nine-team table with 10 points from 14 games and are in danger of relegation to the second tier FIH Nations Cup in 2026.

It’s not what Hockey India had in its mind when Harendra Singh was brought back on board as the head coach.

After a relatively good outing at home leg earlier this year, the Indian women lost six consecutive matches against Australia, Argentina and Belgium (two matches against one opponent) in the European leg of the tournament.

India will be determined to sign off its Pro League campaign with valuable wins in back-to-back matches against fourth placed China on Saturday and Sunday here.

“It is a very crucial double header for us over the weekend. But we will draw inspiration from the Indian men’s team who finished with an inspiring win against Belgium,” said captain Salima Tete.

“This Pro League outing has been a learning experience with several grey areas that we need to work on as a team. We will be introspecting on this performance when we go back home but for now our focus is on doing well against China,” she said.

India will take confidence from its last outing against China where it beat it 3-0 in the pool stage and from a closely-fought final (1-0) to win the Asian Champions Trophy in Bihar in November last year.

However, in the previous season of the Pro League, India had lost 1-2 in the double header.

“They are a known opponent to us, from our regular outings in the continental championships we are aware of their potential. They are a tough team to beat but we will play to our strengths,” Tete said.

The Indians might have suffered six straight defeats, but they played good, attacking hockey here.

But their inability to utilise their chances upfront and convert penalty corners did them in.

There was too much pressure on Deepika to score from penalty corners and she fumbled under pressure on quite a few occasions.