Ajit Agarkar’s absence from the BCCI performance review meeting on Thursday has intensified speculation over his future as chief selector beyond this month.

Agarkar, who has chaired the National selection committee since July 2023, was the only key stakeholder missing from the high-profile meet convened at the BCCI headquarters to review India’s recent performances and chart a roadmap for the 2027 ODI World Cup.

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia sought to downplay his absence, insisting that Agarkar was unavailable because of “personal commitments” and that the meeting had been organised “at short notice”. Yet, with Agarkar’s existing contract set to expire at the end of the month, his non-attendance has fuelled murmurs about a growing distance between him and the Board’s hierarchy.

The Hindu understands that the relationship between the two sides has been strained since July, when Saikia publicly issued a statement backing Rohit Sharma’s continuation in India’s ODI set-up without consulting Agarkar and his fellow selectors. The move came amid internal discussions over Rohit’s future and created unease within the selection panel.

Since then, there has reportedly been no formal communication between the BCCI administration and Agarkar regarding a possible extension. Under the Board’s regulations, the former India pacer is eligible for a contract renewal, which would allow continuity through the ODI World Cup cycle.

“There was no such discussion in today’s meeting,” Saikia said when asked whether Agarkar would get another year at the helm. “There was no discussion on the selection committee. Our whole focus was on the performance in England and Ireland as well as the recent Test series in Sri Lanka and what we are going to do in the upcoming series and the World Cup, which is our ultimate goal.”

On a chilly summer evening at the Wagener Stadion, Argentina’s women had their own Maracanazo moment. Netherlands does not lose often. In the last 13 years, it has lost just one game a year while lifting three successive World Cups.

On Saturday, too, Netherlands was on the verge of winning before Argentina struck late to hold it to a 1-1 draw. The Argentines went on to dethrone the Dutch in a penalty shootout.

After Cristina Cosentino saved two Netherlands penalties, Sofia Cairo made it 3-1 when she put the ball in the net and sparked celebrations in the Argentina camp.

It was doubly sweet for the South American nation as it avenged its 2022 final loss while also silencing a partisan home crowd at one of the cathedrals of the sport.

In a highly anticipated rematch, both teams struggled to impose themselves in open play as they looked overawed by the occasion. It was left to the talismanic dragflickers to have their say in penalty corners.

It needed 30 minutes for the first one to arrive. Yibbi Jansen didn’t even need a sighter and the tournament’s top-scorer sounded the boards to hoist the lead for the host.

In response, Argentina’s penalty corner set-up squandered four chances in the third quarter.

But, the South Americans continued to push on through Cairo, whose snaking runs into the circle troubled the home side’s defence and earned many penalty corners.

With seven minutes to go, Argentina opted for a variation. Agustina Gorzelany fired her dragpush into the path of a teammate, who deflected the ball to an unmarked Maria Granatto for the equaliser.

In the third-place play-off, co-host Belgium beat Australia 1-0 through a goal from Charlotte Engelbert.

The result (final): Netherlands 1 (Yibbi Jansen 30-pc) drew with Argentina 1 (Maria Granatto 53-pc). Argentina won 3-1 on penalties.

Relevance for World Cup classification matches is a matter of perspective. For this Indian women’s team, which suffered a heart-breaking exit in its push for a semifinal berth, a best-ever finish since the inaugural 1974 edition was at stake.

Having picked itself up to go again, this side earned itself a small piece of history by finishing fifth with a 3-1 win over Germany here at the Wagener Stadion on Thursday.

It was a counter-attacking clinic as goals from Ishika and Navneet Kaur in the second half subdued the world no. 5 ranked side.

Starting the tournament ranked ninth, Sjoerd Marijne’s India has exceeded expectations in the Netherlands, pulling off draws against China (ranked 4th), England (7th) and Australia (8th) to add to this result.

It will now head into the Asian Games next month, confident of challenging for the gold.

After a passive start, Germany came alive in the second quarter, making multiple circle entries without threatening India’s goal. But it was India which shaded Germany for attempts on goal, when Navneet’s powerful backhanded drive drew a save from Finja Starck. Salima Tete was alive to a couple of rebounds but Starck kicked them both out.

Germany continued to dominate possession for majority of the game, but the Indian defense, which included tournament debutant, Lalthantluangi, held firm.

Then, against the run of play, India opened the scoring after Neha slipped a through ball for Ishika, who composed herself before lifting the ball past Starck for her first World Cup goal.

India found plenty of joy through Germany’s centre, repeatedly catching its defense out on the counter. After having gone three games without a goal, India suddenly scored three in the space of four minutes.

After going cold from PCs in previous outings, Navneet struck from India’s second short corner before she added another with a cool flick into the roof of the net from another turnover.

Germany persevered in the last stretch with Savita Punia needing to pull off a couple of key saves, but she couldn’t keep out Lynn Krings’ effort with 67 seconds left on the clock.

The result: India 3 (Ishika 42, Navneet Kaur 43-PC, 46) bt Germany 1 ( Lynn Krings 58).

The lack of field goals remains an area of concern for the Indian men’s team, which is staring at a World Cup exit, after another disappointing result against a top-ranked side.

On Saturday (August 22, 2026), India lost 3-1 to co-host Netherlands in the second round, leaving it at the bottom of the Group E table.

According to head coach Craig Fulton, that was the “best we’ve played stats-wise” against Netherlands in a major tournament, but the result has left the group “bitterly disappointed.”

India scored from another Penalty Corner, but came up short in field play. It has scored just three field goals in the tournament with two of them coming in the win over World no. 12 Pakistan. Senior forward Mandeep Singh, who is yet to open his account, has had a tough outing.

“We played a good game with a good game plan. I thought we needed to score a goal in the first half. We created one or two really good chances but it wasn’t to be. When we came out in the third quarter [we were] okay. It was still fine,” Fulton told The Hindu after the loss.

“We just couldn’t connect enough in the D to try and get a field goal. I think we won probably four [six] PCs and scored one. But [in] field chances, we needed the field goal. That was what we were pushing for,” he added.

Although India conceded two counter-attacking goals, which included an error from midfielder Manpreet Singh for the third goal, the South African refused to point fingers at any players for the goals conceded.

“I think I can’t fault anyone’s effort and approach and attitude to doing what needed to be done today. It was a really, really tough game. I thought we did really well. We just needed to get ahead,” said Fulton.

Fulton revealed that skipper Harmanpreet Singh, who scored the lone goal from a Penalty Corner, played through a back injury, which had to be managed. Right after Harmanpreet scored, he went off the field to receive treatment, during which time, Netherlands re-established its two-goal lead.

“We’ll see now afterwards. He had a stiff back. He rested in training but it wasn’t serious. and then he played and he scored. But at the same time, we have to look after the human first and make sure he’s okay,” said Fulton.

To pull off a monumental turnaround and make the semifinals, India will need a victory of four goals or more against Argentina, while Netherlands also needs to beat England on Monday.

It was not the way they would have wanted, but it would just be fine. They made it harder for themselves, but the Indian women survived an onslaught from England to hold on for a nervy goalless draw on Thursday and progress to the World Cup second round.

The sun, for a change, crept up over the Wagener Stadion as the Indian team basked in a rare moment of success on this stage. In a pool (D) where India (five points) was ranked the third-best side, Sjoerd Marijne’s outfit finished second behind China (seven points).

It was a superb rearguard effort from the Indian defence with England needing just one goal to break the resistance and with that, the rival’s hearts.

In the final minute, Tessa Howard struck at goal, but Bichu Devi sprung to her left to push the ball away, making India believe again. It was a remarkable save.

Her jubilant senior goalkeeping partner Savita Punia called it the “save of the match”.

Savita did her part, too, keeping England at bay in the third quarter with two superb saves. But the European side came harder in the final 15 minutes, including removing its goalkeeper for an extra outfielder. England had 16 circle penetrations to India’s two in the second half as the latter was retreating into its own quarter of the pitch.

Nerves probably played a part and India kept making errors on the ball, allowing England to dominate possession and accumulate scoring opportunities.

Darcy Bourne and Anna Toman had eight tries from penalty corners in the second period, but India’s PC defence was superbly led by skipper Salima Tete, who rushed out to frustrate them repeatedly.

India had chances to make its life easy in the first half but Navneet Kaur and Deepika were wasteful with their finishing from short corners. Navneet fired wide from her second attempt, and became predictable with her drag-wide-and-strike approach as Miriam Pritchard guessed it right.

Ultimately, it didn’t prove costly for India. But Marijne’s side will need to do better against the Netherlands in the second-round game on Friday.

There is no ‘away’ World Cup if you are an Indian team. You will be hard-pressed to go to a corner of the globe without running into an Indian and Amstelveen is no exception. The Amsterdam suburb, one of the World Cup co-hosts, is home to more Indians than any other nationality.

For skipper Harmanpreet Singh, the game against Pakistan felt like ‘playing in India’ as he was serenaded by the large number of expats after his two goals in the 5-3 win on Wednesday.

But admiration also adds pressure to perform as India chases its first world title in 51 years. Despite securing qualification to the second round, India has underwhelmed.

The Men in Saffron have conceded eight goals — joint-fourth worst defensive record, while exhibiting a drop in intensity and lack of control while defending leads.

All the while, India has played only one of the tournament’s top sides. India’s next opponents Netherlands and possibly Argentina will not extend that courtesy.

Against world No. 3 England, India crumbled under a relentless man-to-man press in the third quarter to surrender its advantage, before losing 4-2.

With no carryover points from that game, India will enter the next round with a mountain to climb.

In its final Pool game, Indian midfielders Hardik Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad’s errors on the ball, played a part in two of Pakistan’s goals. Wales, too, found itself in promising positions but India came out unscathed.

Head coach Craig Fulton, who preaches ‘defending to win’ mantra, will be well aware that these repeated errors cannot be the bedrock for a sustained title challenge.

“100% defence,” stressed Harmanpreet when asked what needs improving. He also called for his side to cut out ‘silly mistakes’ while managing possession inside its own 25 metres.

The biggest positive has been Harmanpreet’s return to form which has boosted India’s Penalty Corner conversion. India has scored the most goals (6) from PCs with an efficiency of 50%.

Forward Abhishek Nain provided much-needed individual brilliance in field play, adding two goals against Pakistan. However, his senior forward Mandeep Singh is yet to open his account with the decision-making inside the final 23-yards found wanting.

Abhishek was frank with his assessment, too, stating, “We need to improve because if we play with this kind of connection in the next few matches, I don’t think we will be able to score.”

Yet Fulton’s protection of his players will only stretch so far, with the second round promising to be make-or-break.

It was a game of two halves with India dominating the opening 30 minutes, before China turned the tables to assert why it is ranked five places above its Asian rival.

India had eight World Cup debutants on show, who played with youthful zest but the inexperience ultimately hurt it in its 2-2 draw against China in its Women’s World Cup Pool D opener here at the Wagener Stadion on Sunday.

India deservedly went 2-1 ahead at the break after goals from Navneet Kaur and Deepika. India’s vertical approach, through the wings, troubled China’s backline as Deepika and Lalremsiami, in particular, looked dangerous with their dribbling and close control.

The opening goal came in the seventh minute when Neha fired in a pass to Navneet, which she deftly guided past several feet into the bottom corner of the goal.

But a poor foul inside the circle by defender Shilpi Dabas, playing only her sixth senior game, in the dying seconds of the first quarter, allowed China to get on the scoresheet from a Ying Zhang penalty stroke.

At the end of the first quarter tactical team talk, India responded to Sjoerd Marijne’s animated instructions by outplaying China.

Every time China looked to play out of its own half, the Indian players swarmed around them, snapping at them, to win the ball and force a turnover. In the 24th minute, Deepika’s mazy run into the circle, earned India its third Penalty Corner, from which she converted.

But early in the second half, the warning signs started to ring for the Indian team. China cut out India’s outlet of playing the ball out from the flanks and pinned it in its own half.

China’s gangly midfielder Li Hong asserted herself, dictating play, before it restored parity for the second time from a rasping dragflick from Ma Ning.

In the last two quarters, China had 13 circle penetrations to India’s three, while adding four PC opportunities to restrict India to none. Savita Punia made crucial interventions as India hung for a valuable point.

The Indian men’s team will take on England in its second Pool D game on Monday.

The result: China 2 (Ying Zhang 14, Ma Ning 38) drew with India 2 (Navneet Kaur 7, Deepika 24).

An India-Pakistan clash in any sport evokes heightened passion. For the players, the marquee match is all about keeping emotions in check while focusing on the task at hand.

Their resolve will be tested once again at the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup where the arch-rivals will face each other in a Pool D game on August 19. India has held the wood over Pakistan, thanks to the twin victories in the FIH Pro League last month.

India skipper Harmanpreet Singh felt that the fixture will be “intense”, but called on his men to keep it strictly business. “There will be a lot of drama. We are excited to be in the same pool, and to play on such a big platform. But everyone knows their responsibilities and priorities. We have to focus on the match and play. We have to be mentally calm and focus on our task,” Harmanpreet told The Hindu on the last day of the camp at SAI here on Thursday.

The 30-year-old is confident that India will break the World Cup jinx and clinch a medal at the global tournament for the first time since 1975. “At Tokyo 2020, we won an Olympic medal after 41 years. This time, our target is to win the World Cup,” he said.

Speaking about the much-debated move to replace the iconic blue national-team jersey with a saffron one, the captain said: “We just played a training match with the orange jersey. I think that the new jersey looks good.”

With the Indian team entering its final stage of preparations for the World Cup, women’s hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne is focussing on fitness, aware it could be the difference in a game of small margins.

“That is our main focus now, improving the fitness, because we know they understand the tactics and we have enough matches to practice that. But these are the moments we really have to make the next step in our fitness.

“I think we’re doing really well, we are pushing the girls hard. It’s always a combination of high intensity and good rest and also finding the quality you want on the pitch. And the better the fitness is, the better the outcome will be,” he told The Hindu in an interaction on Thursday..

The team would be leaving for Germany on July 29 to play two matches before travelling to Netherlands on August 2. It will play four practice matches against Chile, Japan, Netherlands and Australia before the World Cup starts on August 15 with India’s opening game against China.

Two months mater, the team will have a chance to book an Olympic ticket at the Asian Games but Marijne understands the two are very different competitions.

“I think both tournaments are really different, there are different things at stake. Playing Asian teams is completely different than playing European or South American teams.

“The playing style at the Asian Games is more chaotic, so we have to stay away from that. I don’t see one tournament impacting the other in a negative way. It has been a while since we played China so we will see what is our level against them.

“I think Netherlands is by far the best team in the world. But, I think they all can win against each other. We will always create opportunities and that will be more difficult against higher ranked teams, so if you get three chances, you have to make at least one or two count. We’re working really hard on that,” he insisted.

Spain’s win over Argentina in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final might have read a modest 1-0, but the scoreline hid what was in plain sight throughout. Spain smothered the Argentines, denying them the ball and disrupting any fluid move, so that the defending champions ended the full 120 minutes, including extra time with zero shots on target. How did it manage that against a team featuring Lionel Messi?

La Roja has prized possession as a mark of its identity ever since Luis Aragonés took charge in the mid-2000s followed by Vicente del Bosque building around midfielders such as Xavi, Iniesta and Xabi Alonso, and later Sergio Busquets. This style, termed “tiki-taka”, kept the ball as a way of denying it to the opposition and with it, the danger of any attack.

In 2026, Luis de la Fuente’s Spain built on that identity with a sharp second quality: counter-pressing — swarming the ball in compact packs the instant it is lost, to win it straight back. Spain was the tournament’s best at this, and the combination of slick passing and aggressive recovery let it concede just one goal in the whole competition.

In the final, Spain passed and pressed with gusto, denying the Albiceleste any meaningful sequence until deep into extra time. Two metrics capture that grip: possession share per period, and field tilt. Split into 15-minute phases, the game gave Argentina the majority of possession in only two (57% between half-time and the hour mark, and 52% in the second period of extra time). Spain controlled the other six.

Field tilt measures a team’s territorial dominance as its share of both teams’ possession in the final third — the third of the pitch nearest the opponent’s goal. It thus captures which side controlled the ball in the zones that most directly threaten the goal, rather than possession spread across the pitch.

By this measure Spain dominated every phase but one, and did so almost totally — 100% in three periods and above 90% in two more, with Argentina barely reaching the attacking third. The exception came in the second period of extra time, when Argentina, chasing an equaliser after Ferran Torres had put Spain ahead, posted a 95% field tilt.

But this was also after Enzo Fernández had been sent off in second-half stoppage time, leaving Argentina to play all of extra time a man down against a tiring Spain in late game. Spain’s stranglehold was marked throughout regulation as its 100% phases came in open, eleven-a-side play.

The charts show what Spain did. The question is how. Possession football rests on two things: technical command of the ball, evading tackles, passing precisely and positional awareness, with players drifting into space to offer passing lanes and wingers stretching the pitch alongside fullbacks and midfielders.

Spain has long selected for these qualities and drilled them over years, many of its players having come through de la Fuente’s youth sides.

Rodri, named the tournament’s best player with the Golden Ball, led the press with relentless running while distributing from deep. Pau Cubarsí, its Young Player winner, made line-breaking passes from defence and marshalled a high line that let Spain press through tight, compact spacing. At the other end there was little to do: where Emiliano Martínez made a final-record eleven saves for Argentina, Unai Simón’s role was reduced to sweeping behind a line that Argentina rarely breached. 

For Messi, in what was surely his last World Cup, it made for a quiet farewell. His team was not merely beaten so much as suffocated.