FIH Junior World Ranking: 6

How they qualified: 4th place – FIH Hockey Junior World Cup South Africa 2022

Junior World Cup history: 2022 – 4th, 2013 – 3rd, 2009 – 9th, 2005 – 11th, 2001 – 9th

India take part in their sixth FIH Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup, having participated at Buenos Aires 2001, Santiago 2005, Boston 2009, Mönchengladbach 2013 and Potchefstroom 2022, where they finished fourth. Their bronze medal at the 2013 competition is the team’s best women’s Junior World Cup finish, an achievement they will be determined to surpass at Santiago 2023. They arrive in Chile as the junior continental champions of Asia, having claimed the Women’s Junior Asia Cup in Kakamigahara, Japan earlier this year. Many of that title winning team have been selected for Santiago 2023, including captain Preeti as well as goalscoring duo Annu and Mumtaz Khan, who scored a combined total of 15 goals in Japan. The squad also contains two fifteen-year-olds in Sunelita Toppo – a scorer of five goals in Kakamigahara – and Sakshi Rana. The team is coached by Tushar Khandker, who represented India at the men’s World Cups of 2006 and 2010 as well at the Olympic Games London 2012.