Amsterdam: The Indian men’s hockey team has lifted the World Cup just once, way back in 1975.
Harmanpreet Singh’s men in orange are on course to breaking the half-a-century jinx, having qualified for the last-eight stage of the tournament being co-hosted by The Netherlands and Belgium.
Normally, any team would need to win three knockout games – quarterfinal, semifinal and final — from hereon to be crowned champions.
The FIH Men’s World Cup 2026, however, has a different format being used for the first time.
The last-eight stage consists of another pool phase of four teams each, rather being a straight knockout.
Interestingly, teams in both pools in the second phase will play two matches each, and not three.
India, for example, qualified for the second phase along with Pool D toppers England. These two teams joined Pool A qualifiers The Netherlands and Argentina to form Pool E.
India will confront The Netherlands and Argentina, but won’t face England, having already played them in the first phase. Instead, India and England will carry forward their point/points from phase 1 to phase 2, which will be added to points they earn against the other two opponents (Netherlands and Argentina). The top two from Pool E will then advance to the semifinals.
So instead of having to win just one game to reach the semis, India (and the other teams) will have to play two matches each in their quest for the last four.
India have to start from scratch in the second round as they have zero point due to their defeat against England, who, on the other hand, already have 3 points in the kitty. One match down literally, Indians will have to make the most of their remaining two games.
Ideally, India need to beat both Netherlands and Argentina, thereby giving them 6 points. But even that might not be enough as there could be a three-way tie for the top two slots in Pool E.
On the other hand, a win and a draw could also suffice for India to make the semis. But they will need other results to go their way.
Harmanpreet Singh will have to continue with his goal-scoring ways. The Indian captain, the most feared drag-flicker, is currently top-scorer in the tournament with 5 goals.
The Indian women, on the other hand, progressed to the second phase of Pool E with one point to the good, thanks to their draw with fellow-qualifiers China.
But in the second phase, India will face two heavyweights in women’s hockey – nine-time World Cup winners Netherlands and multiple Olympic and World Cup title-holders Australia.
The Dutch and Aussies will start as favourites to make the semifinals from Pool E, and Indians will need something special to finish in the top two in their pool.