2025 has been a year of sporting firsts. Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Madison Keys, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace, Harry Kane: a lot of famous teams and sportspersons have ended their droughts for trophies.
The Indian women’s cricket team has the opportunity to join in on the history. As India hosts the ICC 2025 Women’s World Cup, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side can become the first in the country to lift the coveted title.
They came close in 2017, but the issues of inexperience, batting depth, and a lack of match-winners with the mentality to step up under pressure caught them short of a miracle. The fact that winning it in 2025, after a gap of just eight years, would no longer be a miracle but instead an ‘about-time’ achievement is a testimony to the improvement
they have pushed through in almost every department.
The campaign starts on Tuesday against Sri Lanka in the Barasbara Stadium in Guwahati, Assam. The local cricket associations are giving away thousands of tickets for free, but even otherwise, there would be a lot of eyes on the match, given just how crucial momentum can be in ICC tournaments.
How India set up, then, would be key. The reports from the ground suggest that although the expectation from Indian conditions is typical help for spinners, Barasbara might be more pace-friendly.
This might push the bowling combination more towards Arundhati Reddy over Sneh Rana. Rana is in good form with the ball and showed against Australia in the final ODI that she can hold the bat in tough circumstances, but Reddy can be a game-changer, especially on fresh tracks.
The only worry would be about Reddy’s fitness. She suffered a freak injury in India’s first warm-up game and had to be helped off the pitch on a wheelchair, but came back for the second game against New Zealand and did well.
The batting combination is expected to be unchanged. Harleen Deol should slot-in at number three after thw two well-set openers followed by the middle-order spine of Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma. Richa Ghosh will shoulder the finishing duties.
India’s predicted 11: Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (Wicketkeeper), Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Kranti Gaud, and Renuka Singh Thakur.
