NEW DELHI, Sept. 21 -- Harendra Singh is not satisfied, not with a silver medal at the Asia Cup. "We had prepared for gold for six weeks. The score line doesn't show that but if we go into deep post-mortem, we were very much there," the Indian women's hockey team chief coach told HT. Harendra isn't wrong. From Pro League relegation, the Salima Tete-led team emerged as the second-best side at the recently concluded Asia Cup, giving eventual winners China a tough fight, both in the Super 4s and the final. But the Alyson Annan-coached team is a different beast altogether currently. Ranked No.4 in the world, China are the reigning Asian Games champions and Olympic silver medallists, almost beating world No.1 Netherlands in the Paris Games final last year. At the Asia Cup in Hangzhou, they hammered an incredible 42 goals and conceded just two in seven games. India was the only side that managed to score, and also lead, against China. But in both the matches against China, India competed hard for the first three quarters but ran out of steam in the final quarter, conceding two goals each in both games to lose 1-4 and make the match look like a one-sided affair. "We couldn't perform counter control in the fourth quarter. We conceded two unwarranted goals in both matches and hence the margin looks big. We should've controlled that. If we had made a structure for counter control, we could have prevented those goals. We paid the price particularly in the final where we led 1-0 in the first half," said Harendra. "We discussed and understood that when we had the ball, we made silly mistakes and got punished for that in both games. Otherwise, 2-1 looks competitive and from there the match can go in any direction. China is an Olympic finalist and a formidable team but we can't say there's a huge gap between the two teams." Statistics concur. India had an average of 25.57 circle penetrations per game to China's 25.43. India earned 8.71 penalty corners (PC) per game to China's 8.29 and the PC conversion rate was a solid 22.95% in comparison to China's 25.4. World No.10 India also improved on areas where they clearly lagged in the Pro League; conceding lesser number of PCs, bettering their PC defence and playing an attacking brand of hockey. But there certainly are areas that need to be improved including counter control. "One area where we can definitely improve is player marking, especially in the deep zone. Another area where we have to improve is inside the circle where we have to minimise touches, show skill and increase shots on goal," said Harendra. "We have increased it by around 27% compared to the Pro League. But that is not enough. We need quality shots as under pressure, goalkeepers and defenders are in a better position to save. We must go one-by-one rather than as a group." India had travelled to Hangzhou without two important players - former India skipper and goalkeeper Savita Punia and PC specialist Deepika Sehrawat, who were both ruled out due to injury. While No.2 goalkeeper Bichu Devi Kharibam rose to the occasion to guard the posts brilliantly, the team certainly missed the services of its primary drag-flicker. "We missed Deepika, who got injured on the last day of our training before the Asia Cup. We were also focussed on indirect attempts through Deepika. Because of that we had to totally reset the entire PC attack structure. Both Udita (Duhan) and Navneet (Kaur) took responsibility and played a big role in PCs but with Deepika we would have scored more goals and would have been more cohesive. She is a player who can win matches," said Harendra. Both Savita and Deepika are currently in rehab and are expected to make a comeback in a month's time. The main priority for India is to now make the cut for the 2026 World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium via the qualifiers, which will be held in February-March. On a break right now, the team will reassemble in Bengaluru in the middle of October but before that almost all players will take part in the Inter-Department National Championships here from September 26 to October 7. Harendra's main challenge will be to prepare the girls without high quality competition as the top nine teams in the world will get busy with the Pro League from December which will continue till June 2026. India will not be part of the elite event after getting relegated to the Nations Cup last season. Hockey India (HI) is in discussion with other national federations for bilateral matches but nothing has been finalised yet....