CHENNAI: In sport, pressure comes in different versions. Till midnight on November 3, 2025, India women felt it in the form of desperation. To win a global title. To stop being an almost and cross the final hurdle. To become World Champions after ending up as runner-ups in multiple editions across formats. To carry the weight of a billion dreams and show the young girls across the country that dreams could come true.
It is a burden they carried for 21 years since reaching the ODI World Cup final for the first time in 2005. That night the wait ended. Harmanpreet Kaur and her 15 women had their crowning moment. And the weight that carried, to quote their captain Harmanpreet Kaur from one of the ICC videos after the final, felt as light as the confetti falling around them. Six months on, Kaur and India women embark on their journey to search for another ICC title, this time in the T20 format.
There is no desperation this time. But, pressure comes in a different form — expectations.
As the reigning ODI champions, they know what it takes to win a global trophy. And now, despite T20 not yet being their strongest suit, there are expectations on the Kaur-led side to replicate the success and lift the T20 title they came close in 2020 before losing to Australia in the final.
The summit clash, however, is at least four weeks away. To get there, to get out of the group that has South Africa and Australia, they have to first beat Pakistan. And no one knows better than Kaur and India women on the significance of the first match. Two years ago, they were hammered by the eventual champions New Zealand in the first game and did not recover from it, facing an early exit.
Which is why, when Kaur said, “The first game is very important, it always sets the tone,” it was not just another mundane tone. "We are really looking forward to it, and hopefully, we will play our best," she added ahead of the game against Pakistan.
It helps that India have an overpowering record against the sub-continental neighbours. Unlike the men's team, there is no on-field rivalry. The Women in Blue have beaten them 13 times in the 16 games across 17 years. So much so that if they lose, it would be called a massive upset.
While India will be expected to dominate on Sunday at Edgbaston when they take on the Fatima Sana-led side, there are issues they will have to address sooner than later. Who is the No 3 between Yastika Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues? How to maximise Richa Ghosh's explosive batting? Where are the new ball wickets coming from? And more than anything else, can Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma continue to deliver over the next four weeks?
All these are similar to the concerns India had during the ODI WC until they got the combination right in the last two weeks of the tournament. Unlike that format, this WC is more ruthless. Two losses could rule them out and they still have South Africa and Australia to come in their final two league games. It is a format where entry points of batters and bowling combinations are paramount. Tactics become crucial — something that India have struggled with in the past. And head coach Amol Muzumdar is aware of it. "If you look at this team, we have got eight quality bowlers. Four quality spin bowlers and four quality seam bowlers. But we really have to sit and have a good chat about what our combination would be. And I'm sure we're going to have that," he had said on Saturday.
They do have the time to figure it all out without costing them in the first couple of games, Sunday could be the first indication of how this team is going to go about their campaign. And they would be hoping to hit the ground running.