India, Sept. 17 -- In-form Diksha Dagar will lead a strong home contingent as India will hope to end its nine-year wait for a local winner at the upcoming Hero Women's Indian Open (HWIO) that gets underway next month (Oct 9-12) at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram. The last and only time HWIO had an Indian winner was in 2016 when Aditi Ashok secured a one-stroke lead.

Since then, Amandeep Drall's runners-up finish in 2022 remains the best Indian finish at the Ladies European Tour (LET)-sanctioned event. At the last edition, amateur Mannat Brar's T-11 result on a fast course stood out as the best Indian result.

This year, while Diksha has been in top form -- she has seven top-10 results on LET including a second-place at the Lalla Me...