A few eyebrows were raised when the Indian team management promoted Amanjot Kaur over Richa Ghosh in the 2025 Women’s World Cup final against South Africa.
India posted 298-7 in the 2025 Women’s World Cup final against South Africa at Navi Mumbai. Asked to bat by Laura Wolvaardt, they were 166-1 after 27.4 overs, and would be somewhat disappointed with the total.
Smriti Mandhana (45 in 58 balls) and Shafali Verma (87 in 78) got India off to an excellent start, but South Africa pulled things back in the middle overs and at the death. Nonkuleleko Mlaba was brilliant, conceding 1-47 in 10 overs, while Ayabonga Khaka picked up 3-58.
A crucial moment came when captain Harmanpreet Kaur fell off the last ball of the 39th over. With 11 overs left, India sent Amanjot ahead of Ghosh, who is one of three batters with 1,000 runs at a strike rate exceeding 100 in women’s ODIs (Ash Gardner and Chloe Tryon are the others).
After Amanjot fell for a 14-ball 12, Ghosh strode out and blasted her way to a 24-ball 34 with three fours and two sixes. Three nights ago, her 16-ball 26 prevented India’s asking rate from going out of hand during their historical chase against Australia. It raised the belief that India did not maximise Ghosh’s hitting potential by not giving her enough balls to face.
Final, India Women vs South Africa Women
vs
- Ball by ball Over
Why India might have demoted Richa Ghosh
This was not the first time Ghosh batted outside the top six. While No.6 is her preferred position (486 runs at 24.30, strike rate 108), she has been just as explosive across Nos.7 and 8 (299 runs at 33.22, strike rate 107).
Ghosh has batted outside the top six five times in 2025 alone before the final. The most famous of these, 94 in 77 balls against South Africa – came from No.8 in the 2025 World Cup itslef. On that occasion, too, India had promoted Amanjot above her.
However, Amanjot had walked out after 26 overs that day. Here, India had already batted 39 overs, and the stage was perhaps set for Ghosh.
What might have pushed India into holding Ghosh back is their team combination since the semi-final. Not only did they replace the injured Pratika Rawal with Verma but they also made two other changes. One, they dropped Harleen Deol, a specialist batter, for the all-rounder Amanjot. And two, they left out Sneh Rana for Radha Yadav.
Both were, of course, logical decisions. The Indian bowling had fallen apart against Australia and South Africa in the league stage, and it made sense to pick the sixth bowler. And left-arm spinner Yadav was a better match-up against South Africa – a team with 11 right-handers – than off-spinner Rana.
Unfortunately, both resulted in batting compromises (despite Yadav’s WPL cameos). To prevent getting bowled out, there was perhaps some merit in batting a bit deeper than usual, in holding back the final push by a few overs. That might have been the reason to hold Ghosh back.
Besides, Amanjot got a vital fifty against Sri Lanka in this World Cup, and has played some cameos since (including one in the semi-final).
