Since the English Cricket Board began awarding central contracts to female cricketers in 2015, women’s cricket has flourished to the point that it commands massive crowds at matches and online followings that have established international teams and players as household names across the globe.
We’ll be looking at the World’s two top international women’s cricket teams while identifying the players who’ve helped them reach their positions as the best in the female cricket world. We’ll also define what makes these professional outfits worthy of betting on and examine whether they’ll continue to be in the future.
Australia
The Australian Women’s Cricket Team is undoubtedly the best female team on the international stage. The current ODI World Cup holder has also won the last three editions of the Women’s T20 World Cup and is the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist. Australia tops the ICC T20I and ODI rankings in the women’s game.
Ably coached by Shelley Nitschke, who assumed control of the team after the successful Matthew Mott departed to take control of England men’s white ball teams, Australia is the standard-bearer of women’s international cricket, with more honours and trophies than any other female team in history, making them a firm favourite with punters using the betting sites from here to gamble on women’s cricket.
Sports bettors keen on backing a successful women’s team would do well to consider Australia in any women’s cricket format. Remember that, due to its success in every format, you’re not likely to find overwhelmingly favourable odds offered on this elite outfit. Individual betting markets might be more profitable with smaller bets.
Jam-packed with all-rounders, Australia is well-stocked with batting or bowling options on the field. Wicketkeeper Beth Mooney lies 2nd in the T20I and 4th in the ODI batting rankings, with all-rounder Tahlia May McGrath topping the T20I list and Australia’s captain Alyssa Healy also making the Top 10 on both lists.
On the bowling front, Megan Schutt (2nd), Jess Jonassen (5th) and Ashleigh Gardner are all in the ODI Top 10, with Darcie Brown being Australia’s top bowler in T20I cricket. As most of Australia’s squad is under 30, the team from “Down Under” will likely remain the women’s unit to beat for the foreseeable future.
England
It was in England that women’s cricket first found overdue recognition, and it is hence hardly surprising that the England Women’s Cricket Team is high on the list of the female game’s international achievers. England’s women played in and won the first-ever Women’s Test match in 1934 against Australia and claimed the inaugural Women’s World Cup title on home soil in 1973.
Since then, England has won three further ODI World Cups, the most recent being in 2017. England also won the 2009 edition of the T20I World Cup, but Australia has been its nemesis in big tournaments since. As a result, England’s women have had to settle for four runners-up medals since 2012.
Online bookmakers more readily offer odds on women’s cricket events in recent years, with Australia and England finding shorter odds when involved due to the quality of their squads and their overall success rates in matches. For this reason, many punters choose individual betting markets to generate the best odds in these fixtures.
England has a more traditional spread between batters, bowlers and all-rounders in its squad than Australia. One of its all-rounders, vice-captain Natalie Scriver-Brunt, tops the T20I and ODI international batting rankings, with the national captain Heather Knight and wicketkeeper Tammy Beaumont also prominent.
Bowling has long been an England strength, and this tradition continues with two England bowlers in the T20I Top 10 and three in the ODI rankings. Like Scriver-Brunt in the batting lists, Sophie Ecclestone heads up the bowling lists in both formats, with Kate Cross and Charlie Dean joining her in the ODI Top 10 and Sarah Glenn in fifth in the T20I rankings.
With the age of the England Women’s current squad averaging under 26, prospects of providing stiff future opposition to the Australians look promising. Sports bettors may consider England’s chances of breaking its runner-up curse and going one better in the 2024 ICC Women’s T20I World Cup in Bangladesh in October.
Final Thoughts
While Australia and England’s Women’s Cricket Teams stand apart from the others at the pinnacle of women’s international cricket, there is no room for complacency. South Africa and India also have formidable international women’s outfits, with players Laura Wolvaardt, Marizaan Kapp and Ayabonga Khaka for South Africa and India’s Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma all among the world’s best.
The difference between the top two and the rest lies in the overall strength of their squads, which means that injuries and loss of form do not affect their starting XIs as they would the lower-ranked teams. In South Africa’s case, the national squad is also ageing, but India’s is still young and upcoming. Although it likely won’t happen soon, the Women in Blue could provide the sternest challenge to Australian and English dominance in the future.
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