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2025 Via 2017 Via 1997: Women’s cricket marks guard for next giant leap
Indian women's cricket transformed since 2017. Harmanpreet Kaur's 2017 innings brought national focus. The Women's Premier League built player experience. The team now prepares for the 2025 World Cup. Led by Harmanpreet and Smriti Mandhana, India targets its first title. The sport is ready for its next growth phase.
A hand went up in the front row. I paused.
“Sir, aap bol toh rahe ho ki apni story batao,” she said. “Hum toh tayyar hain, par koi sunna hi nahin chahata.” (Sir, you are asking us to tell our stories. We are ready but no one seems interested).
That voice belonged to Harmanpreet Kaur. She had been listening to my “gyaan” in a media training session for the Indian women's cricket team headed to England for the 2017 World Cup. Harman knew the world operated in a vacuum of indifference and apathy.
I could tell Harman's pointed observation had touched a raw nerve with both her senior and junior colleagues in the room. Our stories? Really? Who exactly is interested?
A few weeks later, the same Harmanpreet Kaur plundered defending champions Australia for 171 in the semifinal. It was a performance of such brutality that overnight, women's cricket grabbed India's collective attention by the collar. A few days later, the Mithali Raj-led outfit would lose a heart-breaking thriller to England in front of a full house at Lord's and an unprecedented TV audience back home. They came back, feted and celebrated, besieged by fans, media and corporate sponsors.
“Hum toh tayyar hain, par koi sunna hi nahin chahata.”
I remember enjoying a quiet chuckle, as those words resonated in my ears.
On Tuesday, Harman, now a 36-year old veteran of over 350 international games, will lead the Indian team out in Guwahati against Sri Lanka in the opening match of the 2025 World Cup. Over the next month, crowds will fill up stadiums, watch intently on TV and digital platforms and pontificate on social media, as Team India targets their first ever women's World Cup title.
Since the breakthrough of 2017, the women's game has transformed into a keenly followed sporting spectacle. The other night in Delhi, Australia, who have won seven of the 12 women's World Cups, pillaged the Indian attack for 412. Game over? Far from it.
Up stepped Smriti Mandhana, the most divine striker of the cricket ball in the world game. At the end of the 20th over, she had taken India to 204 for 2, as a raucous crowd cheered every sublime stroke, anticipating a world record run-chase. It was not to be. India finished 43 runs short, but the contest reiterated how the modern day playbook in women's cricket has unshackled limitations.
Watching the incredulous shot making unfold, my mind wandered back to the first time I reported on women's cricket. Patna, December 1997 — India versus South Africa in a World Cup quarterfinal. The visiting team meandered to 80 in 43.1 overs. India took 28 overs to chase the runs down. The entire game featured a mere seven fours. The contrast could not be more telling.
Almost three decades later, as another World Cup comes to Indian shores, the sport sits on the cusp of its next giant leap. Fueled by powerhouse veterans such as Harman and Mandhana, sparkling young talents such as Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh and reliable operators like Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana, this is a squad with all the tools to script a moment that rekindles the ecstasy of 2011.
Over the last three years, the Women's Premier League has exposed India's players to not just the arc lights, but built in muscle memory to combat highpressure scenarios. The hesitant playing style of 1997 is long gone, the pace of progress since the leap of 2017 has been rapid and here we are in 2025, prepped to step into an all-new era.
November 2, 2025. Sunday. World Cup Final.
There is a story is waiting to be written — millions are waiting to savour it!
Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!
Source: EconomicTimes
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