Women’s Asia Cup winners list: every champion, and how India took it back in 2026
India have won eight of the ten Women’s Asia Cups, taking the trophy back from Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the 2026 final in Dubai. The full roll of honour, two arithmetic checks that catch a missing edition, and every 2026 result.
Jul 29, 2024 · Updated Sep 17, 2026
India have won the Women’s Asia Cup eight times in ten editions. They took the trophy back in Dubai on 13 September 2026, beating Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the final, and Bangladesh are the only other side to have won it. Sri Lanka’s reign as champions lasted one edition.
Women’s Asia Cup winners list: every edition
The competition began in 2004 as a 50-over tournament and switched to Twenty20 in 2012. Both halves are in the table below, because a winners list that starts at the format change misses four of India’s eight titles.
| Year | Format | Host | Winner | Result | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | ODI | Sri Lanka | India | Won the tournament 5-0 | Sri Lanka |
| 2005-06 | ODI | Pakistan | India | By 97 runs (269/4 v 172/9) | Sri Lanka |
| 2006 | ODI | India | India | By 8 wickets (95/2 v 93) | Sri Lanka |
| 2008 | ODI | Sri Lanka | India | By 177 runs (260/7 v 83) | Sri Lanka |
| 2012 | T20 | China | India | By 18 runs (81 v 63) | Pakistan |
| 2016 | T20 | Thailand | India | By 17 runs (121/5 v 104/6) | Pakistan |
| 2018 | T20 | Malaysia | Bangladesh | By 3 wickets (113/7 v 112/9) | India |
| 2022 | T20 | Bangladesh | India | By 8 wickets (71/2 v 65/9) | Sri Lanka |
| 2024 | T20 | Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka | By 8 wickets (167/2 v 165/6) | India |
| 2026 | T20 | UAE | India | By 72 runs (183/5 v 111) | Sri Lanka |
The 2004 tournament had only two entrants, India and Sri Lanka, and was decided by a five-match series rather than a one-off final. India won all five.
Two checks this table has to pass
Winners lists lose rows, usually the older ones, and the loss is invisible unless you count something. Two sums catch it.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | Top-two finishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| Sri Lanka | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Pakistan | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Total | 10 | 10 | 20 |
The first column has to equal the number of completed editions, and 8 plus 1 plus 1 is 10. The last column has to equal twice that, because every edition produces one winner and one runner-up, and 10 plus 7 plus 1 plus 2 is 20. Both close. If a page you are reading gives India eight titles but its team table only accounts for nine editions, it has dropped a tournament, and it is usually 2005-06, the one edition with a hyphenated year.
India have finished first or second in every edition
That is the fact the trophy count buries. India have not simply won eight Women’s Asia Cups. They have finished in the top two of all ten, and the two they did not win are the only results standing between them and a clean sweep of the competition’s history.
Sri Lanka’s record is close to the mirror image. They have been runners-up six times, on every occasion to India, with their single title in 2024 on their own ground sitting in the middle of that sequence.
Pakistan have reached two finals, in 2012 and 2016, and lost both to India. Bangladesh have reached exactly one and won it.
Four teams have finished in the top two of a Women’s Asia Cup in 22 years. India are one of them ten times out of ten.
What changed in 2012, and what 2026 put back
Split the record by format and India’s dominance has a clear break in it.
In the four 50-over editions between 2004 and 2008, India won every one. Sri Lanka were the beaten finalists all four times, and the margins were not close: 97 runs, eight wickets, and in 2008 a 177-run win in which Sri Lanka were bowled out for 83.
In the six Twenty20 editions since, India have won four. Both of their defeats in this competition have come in the shorter format, and both came against a side that had never won it before. Bangladesh chased 113 in Kuala Lumpur in 2018 with three wickets to spare. Sri Lanka chased 166 in Dambulla in 2024 with eight balls left. Neither turned into a pattern: on both occasions India won the following edition.
Twenty overs is simply a shorter distance for a better team to be caught over, and the field has grown. The 2004 edition had two teams. The 2012 edition had eight, and 2026 had eight again.
The strangest final: 81 all out, and India still won
The 2012 final in Guangzhou is worth pulling out of the table. India were bowled out for 81 in their 20 overs, which in any normal T20 is a lost match before the interval. They then bowled Pakistan out for 63 in 19.1 overs and won by 18 runs.
It remains comfortably the lowest total ever defended in a Women’s Asia Cup final, and it is the reason a scoreline-only reading of this competition can mislead. The 2022 final went the other way entirely: Sri Lanka made 65 for 9, and India knocked the runs off in 8.3 overs.
Women’s Asia Cup 2026: how India won it back
The tenth edition, and the sixth in T20 format, was played entirely at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium between 28 August and 13 September 2026. Fifteen matches, eight teams, every one of them a night game starting at 8pm IST.
Group A was India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Thailand. Group B was Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the UAE and Indonesia. Each side played the other three in its group once, and the top two from each went through to the semi-finals. Four teams qualified as Full Members and four came through the ACC Women’s Premier Cup in Malaysia in June: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand and the UAE. Indonesia were playing their first Asia Cup.
India went through the group stage without being tested. They bowled Thailand out for 65, Hong Kong for 56 and Pakistan for 55, and finished with a net run rate of 5.471, more than double the next best figure in the tournament.
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 28 August | Hong Kong v Thailand (tournament opener) | Thailand won by 6 runs |
| Sunday 30 August | India v Thailand | India won by 94 runs (159/9 v 65) |
| Thursday 3 September | India v Hong Kong | India won by 137 runs (193/5 v 56) |
| Saturday 5 September | India v Pakistan | India won with 68 balls to spare (Pakistan 55 all out, chased in 8.4 overs) |
| Thursday 10 September | Semi-final 1: India v Bangladesh | India won by 40 runs (149/6 v 109/7) |
| Friday 11 September | Semi-final 2: Sri Lanka v Pakistan | Sri Lanka won with 8 balls to spare (Pakistan 130/5) |
| Sunday 13 September | Final: India v Sri Lanka | India won by 72 runs (183/5 v 111) |
The final, and the presentation that did not happen
Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and batted. Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana put on 129 for the first wicket, the highest stand for any wicket in the tournament’s history, and Shafali reached fifty off 24 balls — the fastest in Women’s T20 Asia Cup history, one better than the 25 Mandhana took against the same opponents in Sylhet in 2022. Shafali made 68 off 39, Mandhana 59, and India finished on 183 for 5. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 111 off the last ball of their twenty overs.
India then did not collect the trophy. Mohsin Naqvi, president of the Asian Cricket Council and chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, was due to present it; the BCCI had proposed two alternatives before the final and both were turned down, so no India player attended the ceremony or took a winners’ medal. Sri Lanka collected the runners-up medals and the trophy was taken away untouched. Our report from the night has the full account. The result itself was never in doubt, and it stands in the record as India’s eighth title.
The group tables for both groups are on our Women’s Asia Cup points table, and the Women’s Asia Cup page has every fixture and result in Indian time.
Who are the defending champions?
India. They beat Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the 2026 final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, making 183 for 5 and bowling Sri Lanka out for 111, to take the title back at the first attempt.
Sri Lanka had held it since 2024, when they beat India by eight wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, chasing 166 with eight balls to spare for the first Asia Cup title in the country’s women’s history. Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama took that game away, with Samarawickrama finishing on 69 not out. They reached the 2026 final again by beating Pakistan in the second semi-final.
India played the tournament under Harmanpreet Kaur, with Smriti Mandhana as vice-captain, and without Jemimah Rodrigues, who tore a hamstring playing in the Hundred and was replaced by Pratika Rawal.
Women’s Asia Cup: quick answers
Who has won the most Women’s Asia Cup titles? India, with eight from the ten editions played.
Who are the current Women’s Asia Cup champions? India, who beat Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the 2026 final in Dubai.
Has Pakistan ever won the Women’s Asia Cup? No. They have reached two finals, in 2012 and 2016, and lost both to India.
When was the Women’s Asia Cup 2026? From 28 August to 13 September 2026, with all 15 matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium and the final on Sunday 13 September.
Which teams have played in a Women’s Asia Cup final? Four: India in all ten, Sri Lanka in seven, Pakistan in two and Bangladesh in one.
For the men’s competition, see our Asia Cup winners list and the leading wicket-takers in Asia Cup history.
More cricket features and records
Photo credit: Imago