India’s Women’s Cricket Team Is Rising, And This World Cup Has Redefined the Game

When a nation pressed its critical eyes upon her, Jemimah Rodrigues responded not with resistance but with a bat and a blazing innings. After being written off dismissed twice for zero, dropped from the squad, questioned for her worth and her form she stood up and claimed victory for her country.

On 30 October 2025, at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, Rodrigues cracked a magnificent 127 not out to guide the India women’s national cricket team past the defending champions Australia women’s national cricket team and into the final of the 2025 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup a record chase, with nine balls to spare.

The rise of women’s cricket in India has been quietly gathering force for years. Behind every televised victory lies a decade of grind: stronger batting cores, deeper squads, improved infrastructure, and increasing professionalism. The 2025 World Cup has magnified that progress. Hosted on home soil with millions watching, it has brought both pressure and visibility, but also validation. When India chased 339 against Australia, the highest successful chase in women’s ODI history it wasn’t just a win; it was a statement that Indian women’s cricket had arrived to stay.

Indian women’s cricket had arrived to stay

The transformation has been fueled by investment, visibility, and changing attitudes. Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar called this “a watershed moment for women’s cricket in India.” The ICC’s announcement that the women’s World Cup prize money would eclipse the men’s 2023 purse underscored this change. Home advantage, packed stadiums, and a surge of new fans have made the 2025 edition an inflection point one that could permanently alter the sport’s cultural landscape in India.

If India goes on to lift the trophy, it will validate what this generation of cricketers has been fighting for: that women’s cricket is not a novelty, but cricket in its purest form driven by skill, spirit, and sacrifice. Rodrigues’ victory symbolizes triumph after tribulation, performance after derision. It dismantles old narratives of fragility and secondary status. For young girls across India, this is the moment they will remember: when coaches took them seriously, when brands saw them as equals, when they finally believed that they, too, could win.

In the final, whatever the result, this team has already achieved something bigger than a trophy. They have shown that in a country where popularity is often measured in quantity of fans, they don’t need the loudest backing; they need resolve, belief, and teammates who say: “We’ve got you.” And through that, they made space. For themselves, for women in sport, for the silent athletes who weep in hotel rooms and still walk onto the field.