Cricket: India face massive test against table-toppers Australia in 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup
India hoping to bounce back after defeat to South Africa
The Indian women’s cricket team will face the sternest test of their 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup campaign to date on Monday, when they take on the defending champions Australia at the ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
The Women in Blue made an excellent start to the tournament, beating co-hosts Sri Lanka by 59 runs in their opening match before dowing arch-rivals Pakistan by 88 runs in their second fixture, while also confirming our cricket predictions for the match.
However, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side had their momentum abruptly halted on Thursday last week when they were handed their first defeat of the competition by South Africa, which saw them drop to third place in the standings.
Richa Ghosh played a superb innings against the Proteas, scoring a brisk 94 off just 77 balls to help her side to 251. Unfortunately, their opponents’ depth proved to be the difference maker, with Nadine de Klerk getting the South Africans over the line with a knock of 84* batting at number eight.
India need a victory against the Southern Stars to remain in the top four places in the table, but history suggests that will not be easy, as they have lost eight of their last nine matches against this opponent in all formats of the game.
Australia out to keep unbeaten 2025 World Cup record intact
Australia kicked off this year’s World Cup as the clear favourites to retain their title once again, and our experts are firmly in the camp of the visitors in this clash, according to our India Women vs Australia Women prediction.
Much of the reason for that is due to how impressive the Southern Stars have been in this competition to date, as they are one of only two teams still unbeaten after three games, along with England.
The defending champions secured an 89-run victory over New Zealand in their first match of the competition, but were forced to share the spoils in their second game when their match against Sri Lanka in Colombo was washed out without a ball being bowled.
However, that did not break their momentum, as Alyssa Healy and co surged to a commanding 107-run victory last week against Pakistan, where they bowled out the Women in Green for just 114 runs in the 37th over after setting them a target of 222.
As it stands, Australia have several of their players among the stats leaders in this competition, including Ashleigh Gardner holding the highest individual score to date of 115, while Beth Mooney is ranked fourth in the leading run-scorer standings.
