Women's World Cup: Contenders primed to take aim at Australia's invincibility

Charlie Dean was all of 25 games old in international cricket when Deepti Sharma served an ice-cold reminder that stealing ground is a penal offence, leaving her distraught and teary. Three days after the incident at Lord's that marred Jhulan Goswami's farewell, England captain Heather Knight added fuel to the morality debate by accusing Deepti of 'lying' about the warnings prior to the run-out.

Cut to 2024 at the very same venue, where emotions ran high but the fractiousness was long gone. Deepti struck a final-ball six to seal London Spirit's maiden title in The Hundred. Dean, the non-striker, was the first to embrace the Indian in a bear-hug. A delighted Knight posed with Deepti as they jointly held the trophy aloft. T20 cricket, and franchise cricket in particular, has proved a great leveller in more ways than one.

It wasn't without reason that the ICC, way back in 2018, decided to accredit all of its members with T20I status, increasing the number of teams from 18 to 104 overnight. Cognisant of its appeal to the ever-expanding viewer base, the T20 format had long been earmarked for its potential as the catalyst for growth. It has lived up to that billing, and then some. More so in women's cricket.

The subsequent advent of franchise cricket in the women's game would later pave the way for the Deepti-Dean-Knight trio to dissolve their conflict and form a bond that transcends national boundaries. It has evidently brought the players close at the human level, but arguably its greatest continuing contribution to women's cricket is in reducing the gap in ability between the international teams.

For longer than one can remember, Australia have been setting the benchmark with respect to everything women's cricket. Be it professionalism, pay equality, opportunity, skills, fitness, fielding standards or even gathering a record audience under one roof - Australia have been the one to beat. Wholehearted tangible and intangible investment in the women's game was quickly mirrored in the team's on-field successes.

So glaring had been the gap between Australia and the rest that Meg Lanning's side went on to beat three different opponents rather comprehensively in the last three T20 World Cup finals. But, read that sentence again to fully comprehend the ground that the 'rest' have covered. Even if the competition was really for the silver medal in the past three editions, there were three different competitors.

The franchise scene has played a crucial role in developing the chasing pack, and has enjoyed a significant boost since the last T20 World Cup with the addition of the WPL. It now has two strong years under its belt, providing more opportunity of top-flight cricket to the women's ecosystem than ever before. With WPL co-existing alongside a nine-year-old Women's Big Bash League and a four-year-old Hundred, in distinct windows on the calendar, the three major leagues have multiplied avenues for A-listers and domestic talent alike.

The trickle down effect is reflecting most strongly in the international performances of the three host nations.

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India have made significant gains in squad depth, and travel to this World Cup with several frontline options who earned their stripes through the first two seasons of the WPL. Since the start of WPL 2023, 11 cricketers have debuted for India in the shortest format, and as many as seven of them were fast-tracked after a good showing in one of the two seasons.

This has been true for young and old, which is one of the marks of a good franchise league. Spinners Shreyanka Patil and Asha Sobhana were at opposite ends of the age spectrum when they made their debuts last year, and will both be in the UAE. Meanwhile Linsey Smith returns to the England team - for the World Cup, no less - after five years in the wilderness, courtesy of a 'breakthrough' Hundred season.

"What I think these leagues have done is brought together the best players in the world, which creates a genuine best vs best competition," says former England international Lydia Greenway, who has served as a coach at Mumbai. "You can see how Harmanpreet Kaur thrives in the big crowds under pressure. Yastika Bhatia, who I've seen up close, I think might have been on the periphery of India selection, but because of the experiences she's had in the franchise competition, she's really kicked on. So yeah, without a doubt, WBBL, WPL and the Hundred have been game changers for women's cricket."

A bit of number-crunching reveals how year-round quality T20 action has helped teams beyond the Big Three to upgrade their batting at the highest level. A total of 25 170+ scores have been posted over the past cycle among the 10 participants in this World Cup, of which England have seven while India and South Africa have four apiece. Scotland have twice racked up 200+ totals, albeit in the regional qualifiers which they won. Interestingly enough, to encapsulate the narrowing gap between the top sides, Australia have failed to defend one of their two 170+ totals, which includes a world record chase of 213.

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That Australia and England are still leading the pack comes as no surprise, but the sharp upward curve of South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies from the previous World Cup cycle to the current one is a marker of significant growth. India's minor dip can be put down to two multi-team events involving majority associate nations and not-so-ideal batting conditions, making New Zealand and Bangladesh the only two sides to defy the common trend of teams pushing the bar in batting.

Among batters from No. 1 to 7, Australia (8.25, up from 7.98) and England (8.14, up from 7.72) have gone at more than eight runs per over in the current World Cup cycle, with very little separating them now. South Africa (7.70 from 6.73) and Sri Lanka (7.24 from 5.94) have seen impressive jumps. For Chamari Athapaththu & co, that translated to an unbeaten run at the World Cup Qualifiers and their maiden Asia Cup triumph over heavyweights India. For South Africa, who only have a 7-11 win-loss record in this period, it is a demonstration of them staying in touch with contemporary scoring trends despite results not always falling in their favour.

The accelerated scoring mentality, especially in PowerPlays and slog overs, is also due to exposure to an increased number of mainstream venues, and thereby better training facilities. Athapaththu may be the only Sri Lankan representative at the three established leagues, but no batter has cracked more sixes since the 2023 World Cup than her tally of 46 (out of Sri Lanka's 76 - also the highest for any team). The entire Australian team has only 56 in the same period, albeit in fewer games.

No team has hit more fours than England in the current cycle, but a true vindication of their aggressive methods in the Lewis-Knight era is the massive improvement in their balls-per-boundary number in the two cycles. Once again, the corresponding numbers for South Africa and Sri Lanka are a testament to the rapid strides they are making in closing in on the Big Three.

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What may have fortuitously levelled the playing field further was a shift in venue at the eleventh hour, given that the UAE has hosted precious little women's cricket. On the franchise front there has been a solitary edition of the privately-funded but ICC-sanctioned Fairbreak Invitational - which featured players from as many as nine of the participating teams at the World Cup - while the Indians have played an earlier, shorter version of the WPL on the sidelines of IPL 2021.

Pakistan have hosted bilaterals against South Africa and New Zealand in Sharjah before, but the last of those was way back in 2017. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Scotland's more recent exposure to those conditions comes from the last two Qualifying events - both staged in Abu Dhabi. It may not be one of the two venues for the World Cup, but any knowledge of near-similar conditions could be helpful.

It is for this reason that England may be the envy of other participants, since they had already booked a two-week warm-weather acclimatisation camp in Abu Dhabi when the tournament was slated for Bangladesh. Taking cue, West Indies and Scotland arrived two weeks prior to the World Cup, and indulged in two 13-a-side unofficial practice games in Dubai - the series drawn 1-1.

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One of the pre-tournament favourites, India's World Cup squad went through an intense 10-day skills camp, besides a two-week fitness and fielding routine, on the sidelines of which they played five afternoon games. Incidentally, the defending champions have never set foot in UAE grounds, but that's hardly ever stood in Australia's way. Without playing a prior T20I in South Africa, they went through the 2023 World Cup unbeaten.

A fourth straight title would be unprecedented across formats and genders, but there are good reasons to believe that the other teams are not simply seeking to be Australia's bridesmaids this time around.

India were the only team to beat Australia in the 22 months before their 2023 triumph, and it took them a Super Over to do that. However, in this World Cup cycle Australia have lost the T20I leg of 2023 Ashes - for the first time since the 2017 edition of the bilateral trophy - failed to defend a 200+ total against a Hayley Matthews-led West Indies at home, dropped their first-ever T20I against South Africa, also at home, and been bowled out by both India and New Zealand - a feat no team had achieved since the 2020 World Cup opener.

Whether or not they are still coming to terms with losing their most successful captain ever, Australia's halo of invincibility has never been dimmer in the past decade. "I hope for the women's game it's a new team [winning this World Cup]," says Greenway. "I love watching Australia play, but I think for the women's game now, it just needs that bit more added spice to it."

Thankfully, with the franchise game growing, ICC prize money swelling and the chasing pack becoming stronger, the Women's T20 World Cup has never been more open.