At the conclusion of the latest edition of the Asian Cup in February 2024, Qatar took home their second successive Asian Cup trophy, beating Jordan 3-1 in the final. The tournament saw many underdog and impressive runs from many teams; debutants Tajikistan went all the way to the quarter-finals and lost narrowly to the finalist Jordan; favourites Japan and South Korea were knocked out by Iran and Jordan respectively, and Indonesia still made it out of the group stage despite being the worst-ranked team in the competition.
For India, however, it was a new-low; the team neither scored points nor goals and conceded six goals to finish dead last in Group B. At the end of the tournament, India was ranked as the worst team out of the 24 contestants, their worst-ever ranking out of the five Asian Cup tournaments they partook in.
Today, we look not into the future, but into the past, as we cherish India’s previous four spells in Asia’s premier international football competition. We will take a look at their highest highs and their lowest lows (before this year). Let’s go!
India’s history at the Asian Cup
In total, India has qualified for the Asian Cup on five separate occasions: 1964, 1984, 2011, 2019, and most recently in 2023.
1964 Asian Cup in Israel
India’s first-ever qualification was also their most successful Asian Cup campaign, but there are a lot of catches. Firstly, while India did came second to Israel, the Asian Cup was not a knockout tournament like it currently is. The tournament back then featured only 4 teams (Israel as the host, India, South Korea, and Hong Kong); it was formatted as a group-stage tournament where every team faced each other at least once.
India came out victorious against South Korea 2-0 and Hong Kong 3-1, but succumbed to Israel in a 0-2 defeat in Jerusalem. That loss was decisive, as Israel won that year’s Asian Cup by winning all three games. India recorded their first two out of three victories and scored their first five out of twelve goals.
1984 Asian Cup in Singapore
Having waited two full decades for another appearance in the tournament, many Indians had hoped that they would at least perform well, an idea that could not have been further away from what actually happened. The tournament composed of ten teams, split into two groups of five. India was put into Group B with China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and the host Singapore.
After every game was concluded, India was the only team in the group not to win nor score any goals. Having managed to draw with Iran 0-0 in their penultimate match, India finished the group stage with a single point, putting them dead last of the tournament rankings.
2011 Asian Cup in Qatar
Qualifying as the incumbent AFC Challenge Cup Winners after almost three decades of absence, Indians once again expected to see some positive changes. Well, they did see their beloved compatriots score three goals in 2011, but also see them at the receiving end of 13 goals in just three games in the group stage, where they were met with Australia, South Korea, and Bahrain.
They were pumped 0-4 by the Aussies in the first round, 2-5 by Bahrain in the next, and 1-4 by the Koreans in the last game, leaving them once again not only dead last of the group, but 16th and dead last in the entire tournament.
2019 Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates
By this point, many fans of the Indian national team had lost all hope of Asian Cup glory, but it would be the 2019 Asian Cup that would see a brief moment of hope, a false dawn for Indians nationwide.
India was put in Group A with the host the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and old rivals Bahrain. In the first round against the Thais, India managed to beat them 4-1 with a brace from Sunil Chhetri, recording their first win in the tournament in more than 50 years. This result briefly put them at the top of the group, and many fans were wondering if this could finally be the year.
Sadly, it was not to be. India proceeded to lose to the host and Bahrain, the latter by a last-minute penalty, without which India would have progressed to the Round of 16.
2023 Asian Cup in Qatar
Their 2019 victory fueled India with a new dose of hope, and many fans expected them to repeat the feat in 2023. Their qualification to this tournament saw the first time India qualify for the Asian Cup back-to-back, and they were matched up against Australia, Uzbekistan, and Syria.
Sadly, the 2019 victory proved to really be a false dawn. India lost all three games, scored neither goals nor points, finished dead last of the group, and was ranked the worst team out of the 24 contestants. As a result, the team’s FIFA rankings for February 2024 plummeted by fifteen positions, leaving them 117th best in the world. The nation of 1.4-billion is now statistically worse than Togo, Lebanon, and Madagascar, as well as slightly better than teams like Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, and Libya.
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Overall statistics
In total, India has:
- Qualified for 5 out of 17 Asian Cup tournaments since its inauguration in 1956, a qualification rate of less than 30 percent.
- Won 3 out of 16 matches in the tournament, a win rate of 18.75 percent. It is the 14th best team in terms of number of wins at the tournament, having the same number of wins as Thailand, Oman, North Korea, and Indonesia.
- Lost 12 out of 16 matches, a loss rate of 75 percent, making India the team with the 8th most number of losses.
- Scored 12 goals and conceded 33 goals.
- Eight players have scored those 12 goals: K. Appalaraju, Inder Singh, Sukumar Samajpati, and Chuni Goswami (1964) Gouramangi Singh and Sunil Chhetri (2011) Anirudh Thapa and Jeje Lalpekhlua (2019). Sunil Chhetri is the top scorer with 4 goals.
