The Women’s Premier League played its part in India’s historic triumph in the 2025 Women’s World Cup.
The 2025 edition was the first edition of the Women’s World Cup since the inception of the WPL, in 2023. That it was India’s first World Cup win may be put down as a coincidence. Correlation and causation are, after all, two different things.
To begin with, the WPL is not even played in the format where India won the World Cup. So what role could it have possibly played?
We can start with the financial security aspect of it. It is true that Indian female cricketers started getting central contracts from 2015. They receive equal international match fees as their male counterparts, unlike whom they are allowed to play in overseas T20 leagues.
Let us pause for a moment before we move on. While the above paragraph mentions three financial boosts for female cricketers, each of them benefits a very small group of the massive pool of players. The five WPL teams cast their nets deeper and wider into that pool.
But all that has held true since the inception of franchise-based T20 leagues. They solve a perennial problem by providing financial security to an unprecedented extent. The impact of the WPL transcends that. To understand that, let us begin with the selections.
Reaching out, far and wide
Barring the odd exception, the early female cricketers with sustained careers invariably came from privileged backgrounds or had day jobs. To earn a livelihood as a professional cricketer was unthinkable.
Back in the 1970s, the Indian Railways set out to change that by recruiting female cricketers. While they were not strictly professional cricketers, they got their day jobs for playing cricket, and represented the Railways in domestic cricket. Their livelihood was sorted. In a country like India, that also helped them resist the pressure of getting married off at an early age.
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Unfortunately, it had its downside. Railways hired the best cricketers in the country, often from the other teams, and provided them better facilities and a guaranteed income. Some, gifted enough to walk into any other side, struggled to make it to the Railways XI – but the financial security prevented them from making the reverse move.
Railways thrived in their period of monopoly; the national cricket team, not so much: in domestic cricket, it was difficult to think beyond performances for and against Railways.
Between the early 1990s and the mid-2000s, Air India rose as a formidable rival to Railways. Their coexistence resulted in the first Golden Era for India Women: they won the Centenary Cup in New Zealand in 1994/95; reached the World Cup semi-finals in 1997 and 2000 and the final in 2005; and won their first overseas Test, in South Africa. That ended when the BCCI took charge in 2005: Air India, not affiliated with the BCCI, were ineligible to field a team in domestic cricket.
The WPL changed this. The franchises not only paid the cricketers handsomely but put them into the limelight in a way Indian domestic cricket never could. The next star could now come from anywhere – and be thrust into a stage as grand as the World Cup.
With Renuka Singh Thakur injured in the build-up to the World Cup, thus, India did not hesitate to throw Kranti Gaud to the deep end of the pool. She made her ODI debut in May. Took 6-52 at Chester-le-Street in July. And was picked ahead of Thakur when the big tournament began.
Shree Charani’s ODI debut came a couple of weeks before Gaud’s. She rose through the ranks rapidly. By the time the World Cup got over, her bowling found praise from all quarters.
They were not the only ones. An injury to Pooja Vastrakar did not derail India’s plans – because they had backup in Amanjot Kaur. She has been playing internationals since 2023 (though only six games), but a phenomenal WPL 2025 truly confirmed that she had arrived.
All three played in the World Cup final – unlike Arundhati Reddy, who was part of the squad. When the selectors announced the list, Reddy had played only nine ODIs – but had impressed in the 2024 and 2025 editions of the WPL.
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Had Shreyanka Patil not been injured, she would almost certainly have been in the race. One can go on… but the idea is probably clear.
In an earlier era, the selectors would probably have been reluctant to pick so many players of such limited international exposure. The WPL has thrust them into a platform where they can be pitted against the best in the world.
These are not mere speculations. Back in 2024, Harmanpreet Kaur had insisted that if someone did well in the WPL, it meant “they’re kind of ready for international cricket. It makes things easier for the BCCI because you’ve proven yourself at a good level and under pressure.”
Echoing her thoughts, Amol Muzumdar added that he wanted to create “a pool of fast bowlers” from the league. Gaud, Amanjot, Reddy, Titas Sadhu, Raghvi Bist, Kashvee Gautam all debuted after excellent WPL shows (though Sadhu would probably have made it anyway).
What about those who did not play in the league? Gifted with a voracious appetite for runs, Pratika Rawal had to be at the top of her form in domestic List A cricket for four consecutive seasons to make it to the XI: she is yet to make her WPL debut.
The other factor
Take out a moment to relive India’s heartbreaking exits from the global tournaments. The collapse against Anya Shrubsole in 2017. Deepti Sharma’s no-ball in 2022. Five wickets for 13 runs in 13 balls in the Commonwealth Games later that year.
India had come agonisingly close on each of these occasions, only to fall short. While the better side usually wins, there is little doubt that India could have emerged triumphant in each of these encounters. But it had also to do with India being unable to provide that final push in a tight finish.
The WPL provided a stage where Indian cricketers can test their skills and nerves against the best in business, including their compatriots. It put them through a grind of T20 games so tightly packed that close encounters became a habit.
A speculation…?
The great chase against Australia in the semi-final was an effort for the ages, but India had threatened to pull off something similar against them in Delhi a month before that. While still the best side in the world, the Australians no longer bore the aura of invincibility.
Whether any of that had to do with Indian captains defeating Meg Lanning’s side in three consecutive finals is best left to speculation.
