Australia, the holders, and India's best chance: the Women's T20 World Cup is wide open
The 10th Women's T20 World Cup starts in England and Wales on June 12, and for once the favourites picture is genuinely hard to read. The field has grown to 12 teams, the holders are not the side everyone fears most, and the trophy will be lifted at Lord's on July 5. India arrive with the squad and the form to believe this could finally be their tournament, which is exactly the sort of sentence that has burned them before.
Australia are still the bar everyone measures against
Strip away the noise and the same truth sits at the centre of this competition. Australia have won six of the nine titles, in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2023, and they have reached seven of the nine finals the tournament has held. Their only defeat in a final came against West Indies in 2016. No team in any format has dominated a global event quite like this. Even in a year when they do not arrive as defending champions, they remain the side you have to knock out to win the thing, and nobody pretends otherwise.
What makes them beatable, if anything does, is that the gap has narrowed. The rest of the world has invested in women's cricket, franchise leagues have sharpened players who used to be part-timers, and Australia no longer win every close game by default. They are still the best team here. They are just not as far ahead as they once were.
The holders and a crowded chasing pack
New Zealand go in as champions after their first title in 2024, when they beat South Africa by 32 runs in the Dubai final. That win was a reminder that this trophy does not always go to the obvious name, and it gives the chasing group real belief. South Africa have now lost the last two finals, in 2023 and 2024, and a team that keeps reaching the final eventually tends to win one. England carry the weight and the lift of playing at home, with the closing stages on grounds their players know better than anyone.
That is what makes this edition feel open. You can build a sensible case for four or five different winners, which has not always been true at a tournament Australia have so often turned into a procession.
India's best chance, and their hardest draw
India have never won a Women's T20 World Cup. They came closest in 2020, when they went unbeaten to the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and then ran into an Australia side that won by 85 runs in front of more than 86,000 people. They have reached the semi-finals four times. The talent has rarely been the problem. The final step has.
This squad has the look of one that can take it. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma can win a powerplay on their own, Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh give the middle order both control and power, and the spin of Deepti Sharma and Shree Charani is well suited to English conditions if the pitches grip. Harmanpreet Kaur leads a group that has played a lot of high-pressure cricket together, and that matters in knockout weeks.
The draw is unkind, though. India have been placed in a group alongside both Australia and South Africa, the side that has reached the last two finals, and they open against Pakistan on June 14. There is no soft landing here. India will likely have to beat at least one of the genuine heavyweights just to reach the semi-finals, which means their tournament could be decided in the first week rather than the last.
None of which changes the basic point. The trophy is there to be won by more than one team this time, India are one of them, and at some stage a side this good has to stop falling just short. Whether June and July are when it finally happens is the question that will pull a huge Indian audience to their screens for the next three weeks.
Cricket Updates
