Deepika Soreng , who plays as a forward, was the top goal-scorer in the 2024 Hockey World Cup—her debut tournament in the senior category—and helped the team reach the finals. In the 2023 junior Asia Cup, she played an important role in securing the gold medal for the team by scoring six goals in seven matches. She aspires to represent India in the Olympics. When she started playing, the family did not have money to buy a hockey stick. “My elder brother made a hockey stick from bamboo. I started playing with that,” remembers Soreng. Her mother Firisca Soreng worked as a labourer for nine years so that her daughter could become a famous hockey player.