Australia are heavily favoured by the bookies to record a sixth T20 Women’s World Cup title as the 2023 tournament gets underway on Friday, February 10 in South Africa.
The southern hemisphere nation have dominated the T20 game in recent years and are looking for a three-peat in the World Cup having won in 2018 and 2020.
The Australia batting line-up has five of the world's top 10 batters including Tahlia McGrath (world #1), Beth Mooney (#2), Meg Lanning (#5), Ashleigh Gardner (#6) and Alyssa Healy (#9) – that firepower is unmatched and could be the difference maker.
Megan Schutt is Australia's highest-ranked bowler, with the spin threats of Gardner, Jess Jonassen and Alana King vital in the shortest format of the game.
Australia are 1/6 to win their opening contest against New Zealand on Saturday, the Kiwis a 4/1 shot to cause the upset.
2009 winners England (4/1) are considered the most likely challengers to Australia led by #1 ranked bowler Sophie Ecclestone. The left-arm spinner is joined by Sarah Glenn (#4) and Katherine Sciver-Brunt (#7) is the world's top ten, England will need to rely on all three to topple Australia.
Batting wise, England lacks the explosive threat with their highest ranked batter Sophia Dunkley (world #14) followed closely by the dynamic Nat Sciver-Brunt (#15) and Dani Wyatt (#16).
England are 1/20 favourites to win their opening game of the tournament against the West Indies (10/1)
India are a 9/2 shot and boast a powerful opening partnership that can win any match in Smriti Mandhana (#3) and Shafali Verma (#8), with Harmanpreet Kaur (#11) and Jemimah Rodriques (#13) providing a strong spine to the batting line-up.
India also have three bowlers in the world's top 10 – Deepti Sharma (#3), Sneh Rana (#6) and Renuka Singh (#8). India are perhaps better value than England to cause an upset and start at 1/25 favourites against Pakistan (12/1) in their opening match.
Two-time finalists New Zealand are fourth favourites for the title at 9/1. Sophie Devine (#4) and Suzie Bayes (#7) are the stalwarts for the Kiwi batting line-up with Lea Tahuhu (#10) the country's leading bowler in the world rankings.
South Africa are priced at 25/1 and will need to rely heavily on their bowling attack which features Nonkululeko Mlaba (#2) and Shabnim Ismail (#9) if they are to go far in the tournament, while 2016 winners the West Indies are a 50/1 price.
Pakistan (80/1), Sri Lanka (100/1), Bangladesh (100/1) and Ireland (500/1) round off the remainder of this year's challengers for the world crown.
