Women’s Asia Cup winners list: every champion, and what to expect in Dubai in 2026
India have won seven of the nine Women’s Asia Cups, but Sri Lanka hold the trophy and the tenth edition is under way in Dubai. The full roll of honour, two arithmetic checks that catch a missing edition, and the 2026 schedule with results.
Jul 29, 2024 · Updated Aug 31, 2026
India have won the Women’s Asia Cup seven times in nine editions. Sri Lanka hold the trophy, having beaten India in the 2024 final at Dambulla, and Bangladesh are the only other side to have won it. The tenth edition is under way in Dubai, where India opened with a 94-run win over Thailand, and for the second tournament running they arrive as challengers rather than holders. The final is on 13 September.
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 seven 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 | 28 August to 13 September | Dubai International Cricket Stadium | 8 teams |
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 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| Sri Lanka | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Pakistan | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Total | 9 | 9 | 18 |
The first column has to equal the number of completed editions, and 7 plus 1 plus 1 is 9. The last column has to equal twice that, because every edition produces one winner and one runner-up, and 9 plus 6 plus 2 plus 1 is 18. Both close. If a page you are reading gives India seven titles but its team table only accounts for eight 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 seven Women’s Asia Cups. They have finished in the top two of all nine, 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 five times, on every occasion to India, before finally winning in 2024 on their own ground. 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 nine times out of nine.
What changed in 2012, and again in 2024
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 five Twenty20 editions since, India have won three. 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.
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 has 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: dates, groups and format
The tenth edition, and the sixth in T20 format, is being 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 is India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Thailand. Group B is Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the UAE and Indonesia. Each side plays the other three in its group once, and the top two from each go 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 are playing their first Asia Cup.
| 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 |
| Thursday 3 September | India v Hong Kong | To play |
| Saturday 5 September | India v Pakistan | To play |
| Thursday 10 September | Semi-final 1 | To play |
| Friday 11 September | Semi-final 2 | To play |
| Sunday 13 September | Final | To play |
The group tables update as the tournament goes: our Women’s Asia Cup points table carries both groups, and the Women’s Asia Cup page has every fixture and result in Indian time.
We covered the schedule announcement and what took the ACC so long when the fixture list appeared in August.
Who are the defending champions?
Sri Lanka. They beat India by eight wickets in the 2024 final 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 the game away, with Samarawickrama finishing on 69 not out.
India go to Dubai under Harmanpreet Kaur, with Smriti Mandhana as vice-captain, and without Jemimah Rodrigues, who tore a hamstring playing in the Hundred and has been replaced by Pratika Rawal. They are 50-over world champions, having beaten South Africa at Navi Mumbai in November 2025, and they went out of the T20 World Cup in the group stage in June. Which of those two teams turns up in Dubai is the question of the tournament.
Women’s Asia Cup: quick answers
Who has won the most Women’s Asia Cup titles? India, with seven from the nine editions played.
Who are the current Women’s Asia Cup champions? Sri Lanka, who beat India in the 2024 final in Dambulla for their first title.
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 is 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.
When do India play Pakistan? Saturday 5 September, at 8pm IST.
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