New Delhi, Sept. 16 -- India women's hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne believes the team's best World Cup finish in 52 years has given his players the confidence and belief to compete against the world's top sides as they prepare for the upcoming Asian Games 2026 scheduled to be held in Japan's Aichi-Nagoya.

India finished fifth at the FIH Hockey World Cup, beating Germany in the classification match, and Marijne feels the experience of taking on elite opposition has provided his players with evidence of their ability that cannot simply come from a coach's encouragement.

"I can tell them many times, 'Okay, we are a good team, you can do it,' but they have to experience it themselves," Marijne told Olympics.com.

"Now they played against the b...