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The India women’s football team, popular as Blue Tigresses, look a feisty lot in their ongoing qualifiers of AFC Women's Asian Cup Australia 2026 in Thailand. After riding on an amazing five-goal strike by Piyari Xaxa to hammer Mongolia 13-0 in their opening game, they brace to take on Timor Leste on Saturday – while the remaining fixtures are against powerful Iraq and Thailand.

Pyari, the 28-year-old powerful striker from the tribal belt of Odisha and a part of the national team for a decade, has become the toast of social media since Monday with reels of her strikes going viral. While she has become the first Indian woman to score five goals in an international after 11 years – she emulated five of her predecessors in the way.

Bala Devi, who has plied her trade in overseas leagues, has done it twice – the last time being in 2014 while others to have done it were Kamala Devi, Sasmita Mallik, Sujata Kar and Lokeshwari Devi. The last named netted five for the first time in 1997.

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Nicknamed Ferrari by her teammates for her sudden burst of speed, Pyari first broke through the ranks in India’s AFC U-19 campaign in 2014, where her performance earned her a AIFF Emerging Player of the Year award next year. She was also voted the Indian Football Fans’ Player of the Year in 2020-21 and can push for a second award in this category if she can maintain the scoring touch in remaining games.

At a time when their men counterparts are struggling to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup in 2027 , in Saudi Arabia, the women’s lot have struck an upbeat note – eyeing a berth in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil in 2027. The top six finishers from Women’s Asian Cup will secure their berths in the 32-team World Cup.

‘’Our target is the World Cup,’’ said midfielder Sangita Basfore, who opened their goal-rush against Mongolia. ‘’The AFC qualifiers feel like World Cup qualifiers. We all want to qualify for Brazil.’’

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Since her debut against Sri Lanka in the Olympic qualifiers in 2015, the 28-year-old Sangita has racked up 66 caps for the Tigresses. Only Grace Dangmei, at 86, has more caps in the current squad.

From breaking through as a teenager to now being one of the seniormost players in the team, Sangita recapped her journey with the Blue Tigresses. ‘’When I see the juniors in our team now, I remember my early days. Back then, I learned a lot from my seniors. (Oinam) Bembem di was my idol and still is. There was also (Ngangom) Bala di, (Irom) Prameshwori di, (Sasmita) Malik di and of course (Loitongbam) Ashalata di. There were so many senior players when we came in and over time, they started retiring. We juniors were raw when we came and learnt things in the national team.

‘’But now, these younger players come in already well-prepared. Now, because of tournaments like the Indian Women’s League (IWL) and junior national teams, these kids know how to maintain their lifestyle and progress. There’s no senior-junior gap divide in the team as we are all one unit,’’ Sangita added.

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