They held the 4th-ranked team to a 2-2 draw in their World Cup opener, with Navneet Kaur leading the charge. For the first time, India didn’t flinch at China’s Olympic silver or their dominance in past meetings. They played with swagger, belief, and skill; especially in the first half. But the third quarter exposed the gap: 8 out of 17 players were World Cup debutants, with barely 38 caps each on average. China’s newbies, by contrast, had 72 caps each; and even their young ones had tasted medals. A moment in Q1 says it all: rookie defender Shilpi Dabas, playing just her 6th senior match, conceded a penalty stroke with a reckless foul. Skipper Salima Tete then gambled on a referral; and lost. That point could’ve been a win. The heart is there. The hunger is real. But turning belief into victory needs more than passion; it needs experience. And that’s exactly what this squad is building, one World Cup game at a time.