The Women’s World Cup 2025 is just around the corner. It kicks off on September 30th in India and Sri Lanka. This tournament feels different, you know? It’s pretty clear the women’s game has hit new heights. And players like India’s Smriti Mandhana are leading the charge, showing just how much the sport has changed.
From Amateurs to Full-Time Pros
Cricket for women has come a really long way. Back in 1973, when the first World Cup happened, everyone was an amateur. But things started to shift. The ICC took over women’s cricket administration after the 2005 World Cup. That helped a lot.
Then England gave out the first professional contracts in 2014. Other nations followed. Domestic leagues like Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League in 2015 and India’s Women’s Premier League in 2023 turbocharged everything. By the 2022 World Cup, all players were full-time pros. That’s a huge deal. This 2025 edition will be the first since the WPL started. That league really boosted investment in the sport.
The prize money is also at a record high now. It’s US$13.88 million, up from $3.5 million in 2022. And this will be the third World Cup in a row that’s fully televised. Before 2009, you hardly ever saw more than just the final on TV. Imagine that.
The ICC Women’s Championship, which began in 2014, also played a big part. It made sure top-ranked teams played regular ODI matches. That helped teams like Sri Lanka and Pakistan get more game time against powerhouses like Australia and England. For instance, Pakistan women played just 7 bilateral matches against Australia and England in 17 years before 2014. Since then, they’ve played 37 more. That’s a major change.
But, you know, it’s not perfect for everyone. The ICC seems to focus a lot on the Full Member nations. Strong Associate nations, like Scotland and Netherlands, sometimes struggle for funding. Scotland, for example, hasn’t hosted a home series since 2022 because of costs. That’s a shame, really.
Batting Records Are Falling Everywhere
On the field, the game is just exploding. Batters are scoring way faster. The average run-rate in women’s ODIs since the 2022 World Cup is 4.84 runs per over. That’s the highest ever. And in 2025 alone, it’s actually over five runs per over! It’s pretty much a different game from the 2.71 rpo we saw in the 70s.
Teams are hitting 300 runs way more often. We’ve seen twice as many 300+ totals in the last two World Cup cycles compared to all of women’s ODI history before that. This year, 2025, already has a record for 300+ scores in a calendar year.
And chasing big totals? That’s not out of reach anymore. Teams have won chasing 250+ 30 times in the last decade. Sri Lanka even chased down 302 against New Zealand in 2024, which was an outright record. This is why you see clips like this one on YouTube showcasing big hits.
Individual performances are really shining too. India’s Smriti Mandhana and South Africa’s Tazmin Brits both have four ODI centuries in 2025. That’s the joint-most by any woman in a single year. Mandhana is also getting close to Meg Lanning’s career record of fifteen centuries. She’s only two tons away. The 30 centuries scored in 55 matches in 2025 are already a new record for a calendar year. It’s pretty amazing to watch. You can check out some of her recent highlights on YouTube.
Batters are hitting hundreds faster too. Smriti Mandhana made India’s fastest hundred ever, a blistering 50-ball century against Australia this year. Many other teams have also recorded their fastest hundreds in this current World Cup cycle.
Even batters lower down the order are making centuries now. Traditionally, most tons came from the top three. But since 2022, there have been 24 centuries from batters at number four or lower. That’s a huge jump. Annabel Sutherland made back-to-back hundreds from fifth position. And Ash Gardner became the first woman to score an ODI century from sixth.
Power Hitting and Pure Athleticism
It’s not just about running between the wickets. Though that’s improved, too, with higher non-boundary strike rates. It’s also about hitting boundaries. In 2025, a record 9.3% of balls faced have been hit for a boundary. That’s the highest rate ever for a calendar year.
Six-hitting has just exploded. When T20s started in 2004, you saw one six for every 1,092 balls. Now, in 2025, it’s one six for every 140 balls. That’s an average of two sixes per innings, compared to one six every three and a half innings back then. It’s a completely different level of power. You can see how players like Mandhana are influencing Team India’s batting prowess.
We saw all this come together in a crazy match recently. India played Australia in Delhi. Australia scored a massive 412, with Beth Mooney hitting 138 not out from just 75 balls. India fought back with 369, the highest ever second-innings total in a women’s ODI. Smriti Mandhana again hit a dazzling 50-ball hundred in that game. That match had 99 fours and 12 sixes, over 100 boundaries in total. The combined 781 runs was also a record for women’s List A cricket. It was truly a match for the ages. You can often catch updates on player rankings and form on ESPN.
The Women’s Cricket World Cup is going to be something else. The game has grown so much. The players are more professional, the scoring is higher, and the athleticism is incredible. It seems like we’re in for a pretty thrilling tournament.
Annsly Raena 
Tanya Singh 
Soureesh Datta