Two features distinguish the 2026 edition. The first is the joint staging of the men's and women's World Cups at the same time and in the same host countries, which brings both competitions to a single audience instead of separating them by months. The second is the expanded field of 16 teams in each event, giving every team more matches within a compressed fifteen-day window. Belgium and the Netherlands are natural co-hosts: both are among the strongest hockey nations in the world and both have the stadium infrastructure to run a tournament of this size, with India's pool matches scheduled at the Wagener Hockey Stadium in Amstelveen, one of the sport's best-known grounds. India enter with a single men's World Cup title, won in 1975 at Kuala Lumpur, and with no women's title — a record that makes each edition a subject of considerable expectation.