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Australia heavy favourites for T20 Women’s World Cup crown

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.

Australia women's cicket team
Australia women's cicket team Picture: AAP Image

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.


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