By Admin 
Home World Cups are funny little things. If you win, the sheer scale of history eclipses everything else.
For India, it was third time lucky.
In 2005 and 2017, Mithali Raj led two different groups of dreamers who dared to look for a triumph, but didn’t quite have all the tools in the shed.
Much behind giants like Australia, England, and even New Zealand, India’s tall aspirations vanished without so much as a whimper.
The 2025 bunch was battle-hardened. The core of the side – Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma – had seen too many soul-crushing reality checks across World Cups and global events like the Commonwealth Games. It explained the change in perspective when fighting for ultimate glory in front of boisterous, expectation-filled home crowd.
This side visualised victory and operated like there was no other option.
India is not a champion without flaws.
Losses to eventual semifinalists balanced by scraping through with help from a large pool of washed-out matches, particularly in Colombo, might not have been the preferred survival hack.
But India accepted every bit of luck it got.
With crowds tirelessly working to get India’s campaign off ventilator support, India made the knockouts, with two games to prove that it was better than its recent results.
A five-wicket triumph against Australia orchestrated by Jemimah and Harmanpreet, and a 52-run win in the final stitched by Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma’s all-round brilliance firmly fixed the crown on the nation’s head.
Could this run to ultimate glory have been less packed with a persistent tightness in the chest? Of course.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur takes the catch of De Klerk to seal India’s triumph.
| Photo Credit:
EMMANUAL YOGINI
India was initially stubborn about its playing combination and deficiencies in critical areas with the bat.
A side that dropped spark for sustenance (Shafali) found itself doggedly defending stagnancy, which ultimately brought the three worrying losses.
India had to admit shortcomings and eat humble pie for the cricketing Gods to bestow favour. The late course corrections were thankfully right on time.
The same can’t be said of the mixed bag of a hosting show by India and Sri Lanka. Scheduling games in regions during what have consistently been monsoon months ruined valuable opportunities for nations outside the top tier.
Foreign players dealt with the unsavoury experience of having their modesty outraged, leading to a revelatory discourse on the overwhelmingly dire standards of safety for women in public spaces and who the onus of protection is on.
Home World Cups this decade have earned an unwanted reputation for being poorly planned. Venue and schedule announcements were fashionably late.
Tickets sold for astronomical prices and on the black market, old norms of consuming the sport in India, have embraced the women’s game too.
Through and despite all this, the stories of this bunch of trailblazers, who carry the regrets of those before them and the aspirations of those who will follow, are what should endure.
A team with seniors and youngsters taking baby steps in international cricket, in equal measure, have come together to hoist the Indian tricolour.
This isn’t the end of a long tale, but the beginning of an all-new one.