Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has praised the Indian Women side for their remarkable victory over Australia, which secured their place in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 final. He also criticised the online trolls who had targeted the team following their heartbreaking defeat against England earlier in the league stage.
India defeated Australia by five wickets in the second semi-final of the Women’s World Cup 2025 held in Navi Mumbai on Thursday, October 30. The team pulled off a record run
chase in women’s ODIs, successfully overhauling a mammoth 339-run target with nine balls to spare. Chopra condemned those who had shared insensitive memes and comments after the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side narrowly lost to England.
"One falls short of words at times. I have a question for the keyboard warriors. When we lost against England, I had put a tweet that it was heartbreaking, and actually the heart broke that day. That day, below that post, I saw many comments, which included memes and images where they were showing our Indian girls in the kitchen, saying that's their job," Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
"You can criticize, but don't troll. Trolling is not okay. I am okay with you judging someone's performance, but if you tell someone that they are not worthy of it, I would say they are worthy, you are worthless. I was taken aback. If I read that and felt bad, the Indian team would have also read that," he added.
The Agra-born noted that India did not get off to an ideal start, losing the in-form Smriti Mandhana early. However, Jemimah Rodrigues steadied the innings by stitching together a crucial partnership with captain Harmanpreet.
"The opening partnership wasn't good. Pratika Rawal wasn't there and Shafali Verma didn't fire. Smriti Mandhana got out down the leg side, and your heart broke, that it wouldn't happen. Jemi was sent at No. 3, and then there was a partnership," said Chopra.
The cricketer-turned-commentator praised that the Mumbai-born for her match-winning century, noting that her performance was especially commendable given she was not selected for the previous World Cup and had faced a few setbacks early in the current edition.
"When we lost the final in 2017, Jemi had gone to the airport to receive the team. She was dropped from the 2022 World Cup. She started this tournament with a duck. After that, she was dropped as well. She said she was crying throughout this tour. She was anxious. You are fighting yourself every day. Then she scores a century. She was there right till the end," Chopra concluded.
