Support us like you support men’s football: Shilky Devi ahead of the Asian Cup

In 2022, Shilky Devi was 16, curious-eyed and part of an Indian squad that never really got to play its Asian Cup.

The tournament was at home. The stands were meant to be full. The moment was supposed to be a beginning.

Instead, a COVID-19 outbreak in the camp forced India to withdraw before their campaign could take shape, an exit that felt less like a defeat and more like something unfinished.

Four years later, as India prepares for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 after qualifying on merit for the first time in history, Shilky Devi spoke exclusively to The Bridge, from Australia, about the tournament that feels very different this time.

“The emotion is different,” she says. “In 2022, we were hosts. Now we have qualified for the AFC tournament. It feels different.”

It is a simple sentence, but captures the journey of both player and team, from being there by circumstance to being there by right.

The journey that began with boys in Manipur

Long before the Asian Cup, before the national team, and even before the SAFF finals and league titles, there was a 10-year-old in Manipur joining a boys’ academy in her hometown.

From there came the Sports Authority of India trials, the move into structured coaching, and eventually the national pathway.

Her brother played football. The sport was not an abstraction; it was part of the everyday landscape.

“My journey started there,” she says. “Then national, then Indian team.”

It is a familiar route in Indian women’s football, but in this generation, it is beginning to lead somewhere new.

Confidence, not just preparation

India’s final weeks of preparation in Türkiye were built around intensity and exposure, multiple friendlies, unfamiliar opposition, and a conscious attempt to match the physical and tactical demands of Asian football.

“The results are important because they give us confidence,” Shilky says. “We have played so many matches, and we are learning and improving.”

Confidence is the word she returns to most often. Not belief in the abstract, but confidence drawn from performance, from winning games, from matching stronger teams, from understanding that the gap can be managed.

“Confidence is the key for us now,” she says. “We are facing the best teams. But everyone is thinking about qualifying for the World Cup; that is the main target.”

The arrival of Costa Rica’s Amelia Valverde in January, adding World Cup experience to Crispin Chettri’s existing setup, has been less about changing the team and more about accelerating its education.

“We were already a good team,” Shilky says. “Now the new coach has World Cup experience. We are learning every second, on the pitch and off it. We have to play according to her plan.”

Time is short, and every session is part of a larger push.

Eyes on the prize

Because beyond the group stage, beyond Japan in Perth, beyond the opener against Vietnam, beyond the final group game in Sydney, lies the real prize.

If India reaches the knockouts, the road to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil opens up.

“If we qualify,” Shilky says, “women’s football will change in India.”

On March 4 in Perth, India will face Vietnam, a World Cup side and the first real measure of how far this team has come.

For Shilky, the wait itself has been the hardest part.

“I can’t wait for the day,” she says. “We have to give our best as a team and as individuals.”

Then she speaks about something that extends beyond results and group tables, the place of this team in the country’s sporting imagination.

“Please support women’s football like you support the men’s,” she concludes. “We want the crowd in the stadium. It should feel like India in Australia.”