A mixed bag: The extreme highs and lows of sport in India in 2025

From a cricket World Cup win to a hockey heatbreak, here's how we experienced Indian sport in 2025

At the end of it all they stood huddled together. Laughing and crying and hugging and reassuring each other, holding the trophy, kissing it, passing it along. Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra. Three generations of Indian women's cricketers lived the dream as India were crowned the world champions for the first time in front of a packed DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on 2 November.

The current Indian team had won the World Cup, but they hadn't forgotten the women who had broken down doors for them, blazed a trail with their sweat, blood and tears. That acknowledgement, the camaraderie, the respect between India's heroes young and old gilded the glory.

It was the most affirming moment for Indian sport in a year of some gutting lows.

Post-Olympics blues

After the Paris Olympics in 2024, India was due for a reset, and perhaps a reflection, this year. And the post-Olympic blues showed as some of India's most bankable sports like badminton, shooting and wrestling took time to recover.

It was late June of 2025 before India won a badminton title in singles, through Ayush Shetty at the US Open, and the country managed just one medal—a bronze for Amit Panghal—at the World Wrestling Championships in September in Zagreb, Croatia. After a slow year, Indian shooting picked up in November as the nation bagged 12 medals, including three gold, at the 2025 ISSF World Shooting Championships in Cairo, Egypt.

The Indian women's hockey dream has also turned sour since the historic fourth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Not only did India fail to qualify for 2024 Paris, but in 2025 they dropped out of the FIH Women's Pro League, the premier international hockey league for the top 9 nations. Though it looked like they were on an upswing, as they finished second in the Women's Asia Cup in September, the team was pushed into a flux. In December, Harendra Singh, the third coach since Tokyo, resigned allegedly due to complaints of high-handedness and worsening team atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the men's hockey team got its act together just in time to stay afloat in the FIH Pro League—they held on to the eighth position in the table, just one off the relegation spot for next season. In September, India reaffirmed their dominance in the continent, as they captured the fourth Asia Cup and secured a spot at the 2026 World Cup. This Indian team scored 15 and conceded only two goals in the last three matches of the tournament.

Milestone man

The one Olympian India has steadfastly depended on over the last few years, Neeraj Chopra, delivered yet again. In 2025, possibly his most underwhelming season since he started competing in senior international tournaments, Chopra breached the 90m barrier.

All these years, as the Indian javelin star went around conquering every single summit in his sport, the 90m-mark had eluded him, at times even mocked him. On 16 May, Chopra hurled the spear to 90.23m on his third attempt during the Diamond League event in Doha to finally join the select club of 26 players who had registered 90 plus throws.

However, 2025 also saw Chopra's run of 33 straight podium finishes, a streak stretching back to 2018, come to an end. Going into the World Championships in Tokyo, the Indian was one of the favourites, especially with the memories of that golden finish at the 2020 Olympics still seared in India's collective memory. But the javelin star fell well short, finishing eighth, his dreams of a title defence ending well before the final round of throws.

Chopra also widened his horizons as he took on organising the Neeraj Chopra Classic in July in Bengaluru, the first international athletics event of that stature in India. Even while he played the role of the perfect host to the tee, Chopra was not about to concede the title named after him. The 27-year-old beat a field comprising Olympians like Julius Yego and Thomas Rohler to capture it.

In another landmark in track and field, India also hosted the World Para Athletics Championships for the very first time. At the event, which featured athletes from over 100 countries, India finished a creditable 10th on the medal table, with six gold, nine silver and seven bronze. The championship was a reflection on how far the Indian paralympic movement has come.

Football, anyone?

If one wanted a taste of the irony of Indian football, all you had to do was sample the mania around Lionel Messi's much-hyped GOAT tour, which nearly caused a riot in Kolkata. Even as politicians, celebrities and football organisers tripped over each other for an Instagram-worthy frame with the Argentine great, there were no takers for the country's top division, the Indian Super League.

ISL's new season hasn't resumed yet, primarily because the Masters Rights Agreements (MRA) between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and their commercial partners Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), who launched the ISL with much fanfare in 2014, was to expire in December 2025 and they could not agree to a new deal in time.

At the time of writing, the AIFF constitution is still not finalised and there are no bids for ISL commercial rights on the table, throwing Indian domestic football into chaos. A few clubs, including reigning champions Mohun Bagan Super Giant, have suspended operations.

There is no international success to lift the domestic gloom either. India hit a new low in November as they lost 1-0 to Bangladesh in the AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers group match. The result didn't quite have a bearing on their future in the competition as they were already out of contention, but it was their first loss to Bangladesh in 22 years and pretty much summed up the state of the beautiful game in the country. That defeat also saw India slip to 142 in November's FIFA world rankings, well below countries like Syria, Palestine and Madagascar.

Hitting the target

Over the last decade or so, Indian recurve archers have endured a lot of heartbreak, and brickbats, at major competitions. While an Olympic medal remains an elusive dream, the country's archery team overcame a mental hurdle as they won the men's and women's individual events for the first time at the Asian Archery Championships in Dhaka in November. Rahul Pawaria, Atanu Das and Yashdeep Sanjay Bhoge helped India to its first gold in the men's team event since 2007.

Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara, who had finished fourth in the mixed team event at the 2024 Paris Games, were the architects of India's breakthrough at the Asian event. It wasn't just that they had secured the gold medals for India, but they did so after beating archery powerhouse South Korea.

Bommadevara defeated Jang Chaehwan 6-2 in the semi-finals before overcoming compatriot Pawaria in the final. Meanwhile, Bhakat defeated Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist Nam Suhyeon of Korea for her first major title. Even in the men's team final, India scored a narrow 5-4 win over Korea's Seo Mingi, Kim Yeachan, Jang Jiho to capture gold.

To complete their statement win, India finished ahead of Korea in the medal tally—while both countries finished with 10 medals, India's haul of six golds trumped Korea's two gold medals.

Young and restless

2025 was the year when the last of India's Grand Slam champions, Rohan Bopanna, bowed out of the game. It was also the season that the country discovered its own teen sensation. On a warm, sleepy afternoon in Mumbai in February, the wiry Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi gave a glimpse of the big talent she possesses.

When she entered the WTA 125 Mumbai Open as a qualifier, the then 15-year-old's claim to fame was that she had won a scholarship at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain. But as she ran through the field, making it to the semi-final, Revathi showed she didn't just have the game savvy but also the composure to handle the big stage. Her emergence seems to have energised a sport stuck between a glorious past and an uncertain future in India.

In badminton, meanwhile, the country may have unearthed the latest link in the long chain of success stories. Even as big names like Lakshya Sen and P.V. Sindhu struggled to win trophies in 2025, it was 20-year-old Ayush Shetty who ended India's title drought in singles. Shetty, a former World Junior Championships medallist, breezed past Canada's Brian Yang 21-18, 21-13 in 47 minutes to capture his first senior title. India's newest shuttle star was minted.

Champions of the world

Since India first made the final of the Women's World Cup in 2005, the women's game has undergone a massive face-lift. Now part of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), the women's team earns the same match wages as the men's team, but more importantly is given more opportunities to play, to learn. The Women's Premier League, a professional T20 competition akin to the Indian Premier League, was launched in 2023.

Despite the massive upswing, the Indian women's team hadn't quite captured the one thing that would shift the mood of the nation: a World Cup. They came close in 2005, then again in 2017. They reached the semi-final twice; there but not quite.

At the home World Cup in 2025, the Indian team walked in with intent. Not just for themselves, but their predecessors who had overcome societal and economic bias, endured multiple doubts and heartbreaks. In the semi-final, India were pushed to the brink yet again by Australia.

The seven-time champions looked set to bury Indian hopes under a mountain of runs. While they piled 338 runs, it looked game over for India at 59 for two in just under 10 overs. Backed into a corner, a team that had historically wilted found a way to fight back this time. Jemimah Rodrigues, who had been dropped earlier in the tournament, scored possibly the most definitive innings in Indian women's cricket history. She hit an unbeaten 127 to power India past Australia's total, the highest successful chase in women's 50-over cricket.

While the win over Australia was an emotional release, the final turned into a victory march. Having dislodged reigning champions Australia, India confidently took up the mantle as they defeated South Africa by 52 runs in the championship clash. Scenes of joy and celebration erupted in the stadium, and across the country, as India embraced its World Cup winners. The team that altered India's sporting landscape forever.

Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter based in Mumbai.

Source: LiveMint
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