The ICC Women’s ODI World Cup, one of the most highly anticipated events in the women’s cricket calendar, is tentatively scheduled to be held from September 29 to October 26. The final of the eight-team tournament has been confirmed to be played at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, a village on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Matches will also be played in Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Raipur, and Indore with the Holkar Stadium likely to be the venue in Indore.
Notably, Mullanpur, Thiruvananthapuram, and Raipur have never hosted a women’s international match before, while Visakhapatnam has previously hosted women’s ODIs and T20Is. Indore hosted two Women’s World Cup games at the Nehru Stadium, which has not staged international cricket since the construction of the Holkar Stadium in the late 2000s.
Six teams secured direct qualification for this tournament by virtue of their performance in the recently concluded ICC Women’s Championship 2022–25. Australia dominated the Championship, securing the top spot with 39 points. India closely followed with 37 points, while England (32), South Africa (25), Sri Lanka (22), and New Zealand (21) also earned direct qualification for the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025.
The teams finishing 7th to 10th—Bangladesh, West Indies, Pakistan, and Ireland—missed out on direct qualification and will now have to compete in the Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier. They will be joined by the next two best-ranked ODI teams, Scotland and Thailand. This six-team tournament, set to take place from April 9 to 19, 2025, in Pakistan, will determine the final two teams that will complete the lineup for the Women’s ODI World Cup.
India will be hosting the Women’s ODI World Cup for the fourth time, the last instance being in 2013. The country last hosted a women’s tournament in 2016, when it staged the Women’s T20 World Cup.
If Pakistan qualifies, the tournament will follow a hybrid model. Due to an existing reciprocal arrangement between the BCCI and PCB, Pakistan’s matches could be played in the United Arab Emirates or Sri Lanka instead of India. This arrangement follows the precedent set for the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025.
India’s performance in previous Women’s ODI World Cups has been a mix of highs and lows. The team finished as runners-up in 2017 but narrowly missed the semi-finals in 2022. This will be India’s first World Cup campaign without veterans Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, making it a crucial tournament for the new generation of players. With home conditions and a strong squad, India will aim to finally lift their maiden Women’s ODI World Cup trophy.
(Inputs sourced from ESPN Cricinfo)
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