Bangladesh step in at Asian Champions Trophy in Jalandhar and seek to shed 'fallback' tag

On November 1, 2026, Bangladesh’s national hockey team, coached by Gerhard Rach and captained by Ashraful Islam, stepped in to compete at the Asian Champions Trophy in Jalandhar after Pakistan declined India’s invitation; the side has played three matches without registering a win or earning a point.

Ranked 27th in the FIH standings, Bangladesh have never appeared at the Olympic Games or a World Cup as an independent nation; their only World Cup participation came in 1971 when they were still part of Pakistan. Hockey sits behind cricket and football in domestic popularity, and the sport’s development in Bangladesh has been affected by recent political turmoil.

Bangladesh’s ACT campaign has been difficult on the scoresheet: after three matches they have scored one goal and conceded 20. Their opening game ended in a 0-13 defeat by India, leaving a heavy goal difference early in the tournament.

The team produced a more compact showing against Japan, keeping the score goalless until the 40th minute before losing 0-1, and against Malaysia they finally opened their account when young Amirul Islam scored Bangladesh’s lone goal in the competition. Defending deep limited opponents’ space at times, but finishing inside the circle remained an issue.

Gerhard Rach, who briefly served as India’s first foreign coach in 2004 and whose earlier stint was described as turbulent and involved the ousting of Dhanraj Pillay and several other key names, has urged patience with the process. "People still don't understand where we're coming from. Our opponents are playing at a very high level, and we are not there yet. We have to reach that level, but it takes time," said coach Rach. He also stressed the need to overcome fear when facing stronger teams: "You need matches like these to learn. Of course, we have to learn how to deal with what teams like India do against us and correct our mistakes. The main thing is that we were afraid to play against them. We must forget that fear and become more confident," said Rach.

Captain Ashraful Islam, a veteran with 106 caps and 82 goals, set out a pragmatic timeline for improvement and highlighted limited match practice as an obstacle. "Maybe we need one or two more years because we're still learning, and we haven't played that many practice matches. We have just started, so I think when we play more matches, we gain more confidence. When we get more confident, we can score," said Ashraful. He added that Bangladesh are beginning to create opportunities against top teams: "These are big-team matches. All the teams are big teams. They are playing in the World Cup and Olympics, and we're not at that level. But we are learning, and when we play, we realise that we create a lot of chances. If we take those chances, we can win these matches," said Ashraful.

Ashraful pointed to recent government support for athletes as a positive development in Bangladesh. "At the moment, our new government and our sports minister is doing very well. He takes care of all the sportspersons very well, not only hockey, but every sport in Bangladesh. He is giving salaries now, so a lot of players are coming to play hockey," said Ashraful. He also outlined longer-term targets in international competition: "For me, I think we can play in the next World Cup. We have a chance, and we have a very big chance in the 2028 Olympics. We are already qualified for the Olympic qualifiers. So if we play like this and keep improving, if we play this way, we can reach there," said Ashraful.

Both coach and captain accept that competing against Asia’s top teams will produce painful results but see those matches as necessary for development. The side’s limited access to resources has affected preparation—"We will have to look at video analysis, although we don't have access to a full video. We watch the available clips and then work on improving things for the future," said Rach—and heavy defeats remain a likely short-term consequence of exposure to higher-level opposition.

Bangladesh may well finish at the bottom of the ACT standings and their results so far point to a considerable gap with Asia’s leading teams, but they remain focused on building for upcoming opportunities. "The end goal is to reach the top six in Asia, get to the level of the other teams, beat them and improve our ranking to sixth. But the main priority right now is to build a team for next year's Nations Cup. That is why we are building the team up," said Rach.