Why the Indian Women's Cricket Team Is Finally Getting Its Due
The 2023 World Cup final where India faced Australia wasn't just another match. It was a moment that shifted how people viewed women's cricket in this country. People who previously couldn't name a single player on the squad suddenly had names they could mention. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues — these aren't just household names now, they're actual conversations at tea shops and office cafeterias. Understanding what made this transition happen requires looking at the structural changes rather than just the win-loss record. The BCCI started investing seriously around 2018-2019. Full-time contracts for women players came with actual salaries, not the token amounts they were getting before. Central contracts moved from just three or four players to covering most of the core squad. That alone changed everything about how players approached their preparation. I remember talking to someone who used to work with the women's team back in 2015. They described training facilities that were essentially an afterthought — nets that were barely maintained, no proper video analysis setup, and coaches who also handled the men's team on the side. By 2023, the same person noted the women had dedicated bowling coaches, a sports psychologist, and access to the same analytics infrastructure as the men's setup. The gap closed because the infrastructure gap was addressed first, not last.
Another factor nobody talks about much is the domestic structure. The Senior Women's T20 Trophy and the Women's Unigrid ODI league gave players consistent competitive matches instead of relying on sporadic bilateral series. When you have teams like Railways, Karnataka, and Mumbai competing regularly, the standard rises across the board. Players who would have retired early found reasons to keep going because there was actual competition at home.
What Changed Specifically
The middle-order batting depth is probably the biggest tactical shift. Older squads relied heavily on Mithali Raj anchoring the innings while everyone else tried to support around her. The current group has players who can actually play aggressive shots from the top — Shafali Verma changing games in the powerplay, Smriti Mandhana taking on pace bowlers early. That removes pressure from the middle order and gives Harmanpreet the freedom to anchor when needed or accelerate depending on the situation. The bowling attack is more balanced too. You have Renuka Singh Thakur providing genuine pace and swing on helpful surfaces, Radha Yadav offering left-arm spin variation, and Deepti Sharma giving you that all-round option in the middle overs. Before this cycle, teams often played with just one mainstream spinner and hoped the seamers could do everything. Now you have actual strategic choices when setting fields. Captaincy has been a topic of discussion since Mithali Raj stepped down. Harmanpreet Kaur isn't the most conventional captain but she reads the game well under pressure. The team seems to trust her decisions, which matters more than any tactical checklist. I watched several matches where she made questionable-looking changes that actually worked because the players believed in what she was asking them to do.
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The Hard Parts Nobody Celebrates
There's a reason the 2023 World Cup final ended in heartbreak against Australia, and it's worth being honest about it. Australia has been dominant in women's cricket for over a decade. They won the previous two World Cups and had a system built around developing players specifically to counter different formats. Beating them required fixing issues that went beyond individual talent. One practical problem I noticed during the tournament was how India handled death bowling in high-pressure knockouts. Against Australia in the final, the bowlers were getting hit for runs in the last five overs repeatedly. The fix wasn't really addressed until after that match. Having a specialist death bowler like Renuka or even using Deepti in those situations requires practice that doesn't happen naturally during tournaments. Another thing: the mental resilience aspect. Losing close matches in finals takes a toll. Players carry that weight into the next series. What helped was having a larger, more competitive squad where if one person has a bad series, someone else steps up immediately. The depth means individual failures don't collapse the whole structure anymore.
What This Means Going Forward
The IPL for women, though still struggling with consistency, has created more opportunities for players to develop under pressure. Matches against international stars in a franchise format change how young players approach their game. They see professionals handling situations they've never encountered before and pick up habits through osmosis. Young girls watching this team now have role models who look like them and come from similar backgrounds. That visibility creates a pipeline. The next generation isn't wondering if cricket is possible for them — they're already playing it seriously from age ten or eleven because they saw the women's team on television and thought it was attainable. The journey toward sustained success requires more than one good World Cup campaign. Australia's dominance shows how long it takes to build a system that lasts. India has the pieces in place now. Whether they convert that into trophies consistently remains the real test.
