For the last month or so, there has been a lot of noise within hockey circles and the Sports Ministry about whether India should send one or two different squads for the Hockey World Cup and the Asian Games. The debate has picked up pace over the last couple of days with Ministry sources telling the media they want two separate teams.
Coach Craig Fulton has been clear. One squad, both tournaments, no discussion. The women’s team coach Sjoerd Marijne has the same view. But the Ministry is sticking to their guns about sending two teams.
But before getting into that, here is the basic calendar reality. The World Cup runs from August 15 to 30 in Belgium and the Netherlands. The Asian Games follows from September 19 to October 4 in Japan. That is a 20-day gap at best. Now, with that context, let us get to the real question.
The Ministry has a point. But only up to a point.
The Ministry’s concern is not coming from nowhere. The government has been serious about multi-sport events for a while now. India is hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games and the government has placed a bid to host the 2036 Olympics. Performing well at the Asian Games fits into that larger picture.
And if you want to understand why the Ministry is almost paranoid about Olympic qualification, go back to 2008. India failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time ever. It shook Indian hockey completely. Hockey India was born out of that mess.
So yes, there is a reason behind what they are doing. But their logic falls apart the moment you look at who India is actually playing at the Asian Games.
The competition at the Asian Games
India is ranked 8th in the world. The next Asian team in FIH rankings is Pakistan, 13th. Malaysia are placed 15th while Japan are 16th. Korea have dropped all the way to 21st. This is the competition India is supposedly so worried about that they need to send their best players.
India’s performance against Asian teams has been great over the last decade. Asian Games gold in 2014, bronze in 2018, gold again at the Hangzhou Asian Games, which was originally scheduled for 2022 but played in 2023 due to Covid, where they beat Singapore 16-1 and Pakistan 10-2 in the group stage and Japan 5-1 in the final. Asian Champions Trophy wins in 2011, 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2024. Asia Cup wins in 2017 and 2025.
Yes, 2018 was a problem. Malaysia knocked India out in the semi-final and India had to take the bronze. But here is what people forget about 2018. India went there with a full-strength squad as defending champions and still lost to Malaysia. So if the argument is that the Asian Games is risky without the A team, then 2018 actually tells you the opposite. A full-strength India can also slip up. At that point it is about performance and confidence, not who you are playing against.
Pakistan, Japan and Malaysia are all going to the World Cup and the Asian Games. Nobody is talking about any of these federations splitting their squads. Givemehockey.com has reached out to the Malaysian, Japanese and Pakistani hockey federations on this specific question and is waiting for their response. But based on what is publicly available, none of them are planning two separate teams. So India sends a B team to the World Cup while everyone else turns up with their best players. How does that make sense?
And even if India were to miss direct Olympic qualification through the Asian Games, the road to the Olympics does not end. You can qualify through the Pro League. You have Olympic qualifying tournaments available. The Indian women’s team showed not long ago that qualification through alternate routes is very much possible. Missing the Asian Games gold is not the end of the world. But sending a weakened team to the World Cup and getting embarrassed? That has a different kind of cost.
Does India actually have a B team? No.
This is the real question. And the honest answer is no.
Let us go position by position.
Goalkeeping is the one area of genuine depth. Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Mohith and Pawan have all been in and around the squad. India has options here and this is the one position where the two-team argument holds up.
On defence, India does have a reasonable number of players. Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Sanjay, Sumit, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Varun Kumar, Yashdeep Siwach and Amandeep Lakra have all been part of squads in recent times. The numbers are there. But the quality of defending, even in the Pro League, has not been consistently convincing. Sending a second-string defence to a World Cup is a serious risk.
For penalty corners, the options beyond Harmanpreet Singh are Jugraj Singh, Amit Rohidas, Sanjay, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Varun Kumar and Amandeep Lakra, who had a decent Hockey India League season. But none of them have come close to Harmanpreet’s level. Every time an alternative drag flicker has been tried, the results have not been convincing enough to challenge Harmanpreet’s place. So if he goes to the Asian Games, who is leading the PC attack at the World Cup? That is not a hypothetical risk. That is a guaranteed weakness going into the biggest tournament in hockey.
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In midfield, India has Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Raj Kumar Pal, Moirangthem Rabichandra Singh, Rajinder Singh, Vishnu Kant Singh and Mohammed Raheel Mouseen all available. On paper, that looks like depth. But here is the problem. Even with Hardik Singh in the squad, India’s midfield has been quite ordinary of late. The Pro League performances have been a concern. If you rest Hardik and ask these players to run the show against England, Pakistan or Australia at a World Cup, that is a completely different ask. These are good players. They are not Hardik Singh.
For forwards, Mandeep Singh is the most experienced option beyond the first-choice pair. Abhishek and Sukhjeet are the key goal threats and everyone knows it. Dilpreet Singh, Araijeet Singh Hundal, Aditya Arjun Lalage, Angad Bir Singh and others have been part of squads and played supporting roles. But they have not led the Indian attack. Araijeet Singh Hundal has scored three international goals. Uttam Singh has two. These are players still finding their footing at senior level, not players you build a World Cup campaign around.
So if you rest Abhishek and Sukhjeet for the Asian Games and ask this group to carry the World Cup attack, India will struggle. And that does not just affect the result. It puts Craig Fulton’s credibility directly on the line. More than that, it tells the world exactly how seriously India takes the World Cup. Not very, apparently.
FIH needs India. And they know it.
Here is something that does not get talked about enough. FIH depends heavily on India when it comes to revenue. They have bent over backwards in the past to make sure India is part of big tournaments. Sending a B team to the World Cup hurts FIH commercially at a time when they are not exactly flush. FIH will not be happy about this and their unhappiness tends to show up in ways that matter to Indian hockey eventually.
The real issue: does the Ministry trust their own coach?
This is the question nobody is asking out loud. The Ministry is paying Craig Fulton’s salary. SAI is funding this entire programme. And when Fulton says one squad, I will manage it, the Ministry overrules him. That is not a scheduling debate. That is the Ministry saying we do not trust you.
You are either backing your coach or you are not. There is no middle ground here.
Fulton said something back in early 2025 that is worth going back to. He said B game won’t cut it at a World Cup. Coach was not talking about tactics. He was talking about the level of commitment and preparation that a World Cup demands from every single player. He saw this calendar coming and he was already warning people.
And while we are on this topic, let us talk about what winning 16-0 against Uzbekistan or 16-1 against Singapore actually does for Indian hockey. The answer is nothing. It does not test your defence. It does not sharpen your penalty corners under pressure. Neither it tells you whether Jugraj Singh can hold his nerve when India needs a goal in a knockout match. All it does is make a good headline. If India genuinely cannot back themselves to beat a struggling Malaysia or Japan with even a slightly rotated squad, that is a much bigger problem than the calendar. That problem is called confidence. And it lives inside the team, not in the opposition.
What Fulton should actually do
Keep the core the same. Harmanpreet, Hardik, Abhishek, Sukhjeet, Manpreet, Mandeep, Jarmanpreet. These players stay in both squads. Change the players around them based on fitness and workload. The rest of the squad already know each other from months of training camps. The wavelength between them will not be an issue.
Also, acting like 20 days between tournaments is some kind of impossible ask is absurd. The Hockey India League just ran for nearly a month. Players were competing back-to-back throughout. These are professional athletes. They train for such scenarios. Twenty days is a rest, not a crisis.
There is also a scenario the Ministry has not thought through. What if India goes out of the World Cup in the group stage or the quarters? Then the same players have even more time to rest before the Asian Games. The exhaustion scenario only happens if India goes deep. And if India goes deep into the World Cup, that is the best possible thing that could happen for Indian hockey right now, Asian Games or not.
One big squad, 22 to 24 players. Core stays the same. Rotate around them. Go for both tournaments. That is not complicated. It is just good planning.
The bigger picture
India last won the World Cup in 1975. Every fan wants to see India perform at the World Cup, not treat it as a warm-up for a continental tournament they will almost certainly win anyway. Sending a B team to the World Cup is not a strategy. It is a message. It says India is choosing safety over ambition.
And quietly, this whole debate has pointed at something Indian hockey has been avoiding for a while. Despite two seasons of the Hockey India League and serious investment in the programme, India still does not have match-winners beyond the core group that everyone can name off the top of their head. The Under-19 team has done well. But the jump from Under-19 to senior level has always been where India loses players. That conversation needs to happen. But that is another article.
For now, the answer is simple. Trust the coach. Keep the squad together. Send one team to both tournaments.
Fulton knows what he is doing. Let him do it.
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Note: Givemehockey.com has reached out to the Malaysian, Japanese and Pakistani hockey federations regarding their squad plans for this tournament window. This piece will be updated when responses are received.
