India, Oct. 13 -- A campaign that began with a rare away win in November 2023 has since chewed up two head coaches and now feels like climbing Mt Everest without oxygen support. Three matches India were expected to win and did not have played an outsized role in the unravelling of a qualification cycle that started with Manvir Singh's winner in Kuwait in November 2023. All have one person in common: Ashley Westwood.

As Afghanistan head coach, Westwood, 49, absorbed a players' rebellion and lived through a logistical nightmare of organising nearly 350 flight tickets from 16-17 countries to assemble a team ready for back-to-back matches against India. This was when India were second in the group from where the top two would make it to the ...