India boasts a glorious past in hockey and has tasted unparalleled success in the sport for close to a century.
From Olympic gold medals to World Cup glory, the Indian hockey team has reached the pinnacle in every aspect of the game.
In spite of their overwhelming dominance, India’s men’s team has never been world No.1 because the official hockey rankings were only introduced in 2003.
The hockey ranking system was adopted to determine the seedings and pools of teams in tournaments, considering their performances at tournaments organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
Since this method only took into account FIH tournaments, the hockey rankings remained unchanged for long periods and were not favourable to smaller nations. So, a new system was adopted in 2020 and is currently followed.
How does the hockey ranking system work?
The new hockey ranking system started on January 1, 2020.
It is based on the Elo rating system, commonly used in chess, football, table tennis, American football and Major League Baseball (MLB).
Under the new approach, every hockey match is taken into consideration to reflect the current form of teams.
The number of ranking points earned or lost depended on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match or tournament.
This means that the number of ranking points gained by one team is exactly matched by the number of points lost by the other. Teams win more points for beating higher-ranked opponents, and therefore teams lose more points for losing to a side ranked below them.
Here’s a glance at how the Indian hockey team ranking has fluctuated over the years.
Indian men’s hockey team ranking
The men’s team was ranked sixth when the hockey ranking system was introduced in 2003.
In the same year, India won the Asia Cup for the first time by beating arch-rivals Pakistan.
But India’s form soon took a dip, and they were crashing out of tournaments early on. They came seventh in the eight-nation Rabo Trophy in 2005 and were last in the 2005 Champions Trophy as well.
Although India were struggling to win tournaments, they maintained their position in the top 10 since the hockey ranking system considered results from a four-year cycle. A bronze medal at the 2007 Champions Challenge also helped India’s cause.
Indian hockey’s dip in form soon reflected in the rankings.
The Indian men’s hockey team lost five of its seven matches at the 2006 Hockey World Cup to end the tournament in 11th position.
The Indian hockey team then failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 80 years, missing the cut for Beijing 2008.
The dismal run meant India dropped out of the top 10 of the hockey rankings for the first time in 2008.
Former world champions India hosted the World Cup in 2010 but only won once in the pool stage and ended the tournament in eighth place.
This further dropped India to 12th, which is their worst hockey rank ever to date.
India’s performances saw a gradual improvement in the next decade.
India won the Asian Champions Trophy four times (2011, 2016 and 2018), along with the 2014 Asian Games and the 2017 Asia Cup. India were also medallists at the Champions Trophy, the Commonwealth Games and the Hockey World League.
The steady improvement reflected in the hockey rankings and India were up to fifth when the old ranking system was replaced in 2020.
Indian men reached their highest ranking – third – in 2021 after winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. It was their first Olympic medal in 41 years.
Since then, India men finished third in the Asian Champions Trophy 2021, FIH Pro League 2021-22 and at the Asia Cup 2022. At the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham they won a silver medal. The men then claimed the Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Games title in 2023. The win in Hangzhou also sealed a place for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Indian men’s hockey team is currently ranked third in the world.
Indian women’s hockey team rankings
Unlike the men’s team, the Indian women’s hockey team does not boast of a glorious past and have largely lingered outside the top 10 until a few years ago.
Following India’s inability to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, the Indian women’s hockey team was ranked 13th when the rankings first released in 2003.
The Indian women’s hockey team slipped to its lowest ranking when it failed to qualify for the Athens 2004 Olympics, slipping down to 15th in 2004.
The Indian eves made it to the 2006 World Cup but were placed 11th and followed it up with a ninth-place finish in the 2010 edition.
Gold medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2004 Asia Cup were the highlights of the women’s hockey team in the 2000s. But unimpressive performances at other major events meant they couldn’t break the top 10 barrier until 2017.
Following years of tepid outings, the Indian eves showed signs of progress in 2015 and qualified for their first Olympics in over 30 years by making the cut for Rio 2016.
Though India could not go beyond the group stage, the qualification served as a catalyst for improvement.
India won gold medals at the Asian Champions Trophy and South Asian Games in 2016 and followed it up with a top finish at the 2018 Asia Cup.
The Indian women’s hockey team broke into the top 10 in the rankings for the first time in 2017.
Led by Rani Rampal, India also made it to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and put up a valiant effort to finish fourth. They narrowly missed the bronze medal to Great Britain, but it helped the Indian women’s hockey team climb to its highest ranking – eighth – in August 2021.
India women made an impressive debut in the FIH Pro League in the 2021-22 season. They finished third behind champions Argentina and the Netherlands.
The results propelled the Indian women’s hockey team to sixth in the FIH rankings, its best position so far.
In 2022, India women had a challenging outing the FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup in Spain and the Netherlands, where they finished ninth. But India bounced back to win a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham and then went on to win the inaugural FIH Women’s Nations Cup in Spain. In 2023, India women won the bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games and then dominated the Women's Asian Champions Trophy to seal the title.
The Indian women’s hockey team is currently ranked sixth in the world.
