What makes Women’s T20 cricket different

If you’re getting back to women’s cricket after a deluge of the men’s sport, here’s a quick guide to follow the upcoming World Cup better. It’s the same sport, but played with different tactics and gameplays. The match-ups may not make sense, the stroke-making may seem different, and the ball may not disappear into the crowd nearly as often as you’re used to watching.

This can be an entry barrier for some fans – while women’s cricket has grown steadily in terms of viewers, the women’s World Cup final last year attracted less than a third of the one billion sets of eyeballs that were recorded during this year’s Men’s T20 World Cup final.

Understanding the nuance of what you’re watching is critical to enjoying it, so if you’re trying to get on board with the women’s game for the 2026 T20 World Cup that gets underway in England on June 12, here are answers to some of the questions that might come up along the way.

1) Nine runs needed off the last over, two right-handers in the middle, and the ball has been handed over to Deepti Sharma, an offspinner, to defend the target. The match-up is not making sense. Is it a poor tactical call, or have India run out of frontline bowling options?

Given how the Indian team is likely to stack up, in all probability the captain would have run out of frontline bowling options. And yet, there are two good reasons why Deepti would not be the worst candidate for the job, and they go beyond the fact that she is one of the more effective death-over operators.

Firstly, the match-up conventions of men’s cricket (offspinner to left-handers, and legspinner to right-handers) does not hold true in women’s cricket, especially for right-handers.

Women batters vs bowling types in T20s since 2025

Left-handers, however, have fared slightly better against the incoming delivery in recent years.

In reality, these generic matchups are only broad segregations that don’t account for the natural strength of each batter, and as a result, don’t hold true for every player – men or women. The height, trajectory, speed, degree of turn and angles – all of that matters. For example, Australian offspinner Ashleigh Gardner may still be brought on to bowl against India’s left-handed batter Smriti Mandhana.

At the same time, the opposite also holds true. Nicola Carey, Australia’s left-handed batter, has scored at a pace of 149.58 against offspinners, while being contained to 91.83 against left-arm spinners in all T20s since 2025. Other Australian batters like Gardner and Phoebe Litchfield have also been more destructive against deliveries turning away from them than those coming into their swinging arc. Similarly, don’t be surprised when captains bring on their offspinners against Harmanpreet Kaur, when they would have the option of employing a leggie or orthodox left-arm spin against the Indian captain.

In women’s cricket, the average of a larger sub-set shows no significant preference. Moreover, Deepti herself is equally adept bowling against both left-handers and right-handed batters.

Secondly, it is very common for spinners to operate in the death overs. Since the inaugural season of the WPL, 57.2 percent of the death overs have been bowled by spinners. It’s been just as common in women’s internationals as well.

Last three editions of the Women’s T20 World Cups (overall % of overs by spin | % of overs by spinners at death)

The reason for this use of spin at the death – apart from the limited pace bowling options for almost all teams – is to put the onus of generating pace on the ball onto the middle or lower order batters when they’re looking to clear the ropes.

This tactic proves especially effective against batters who have weak power games – 13 of the 20 most economical bowlers in international cricket in the death overs (min 10 overs for teams involved in the World Cup) are spinners. Similar is the case in English conditions – six of the 10 most economical bowlers in The Hundred in this phase are spinners (with Deepti being the third-best).

However, as the power in the women’s game has gone up, the use of spin in the death overs has also reduced. Even in the WPL – where nine of the 10 most economical bowlers are spinners – over the past three seasons, the use of spin in the death has declined sharply from 67 percent in 2024 to 44.3 percent in 2026.

2) Why are they playing the sweep and scoop so often?

Women’s cricket is largely a back foot game. Since 2024, in the WPL, the WBBL and The Hundred Women’s competition, nearly one-third of the runs against spin have come behind the square. Among those, 1731 balls were swept, with one-quarter of them earning a boundary.

It is a highly productive shot in the women’s game. Playing the sweep has allowed players to score at a strike rate of 152.79 – significantly higher than playing in the straight ‘V’ (125.43).

Similarly, the proportional use of the scoop and the reverse sweep have been higher in the women’s game. 173 scoop shots were attempted in these tournaments – significantly higher than the 75 attempted in the men’s competitions of these leagues (despite the latter hosting more games).

There isn’t a big difference in the runs scored in the straight ‘V’ in these competitions – 38 percent for men vs 34.4 percent for women (against spin). However, this distribution of scoring happens despite significantly fuller lengths being employed by both pacers and spinners in the women’s competitions.

Lengths by spinners since 2024 (in WBBL, WPL and The Hundred)

One of the primary reasons for this could also be down to most women cricketers being significantly shorter in height as compared to men. There has also been far less reliance on bouncers and hard lengths.

All of this, however, could vary from team to team. For example Australian players, with a stronger power game, play much more of their shots in the straight ‘V’. Barring Georgia Voll, each of their players in the World Cup squad (with at least 50 T20I runs since 2024) has scored more than a quarter of their runs in that region. Even Voll, with 24.6 percent of her runs in that region, nearly makes that mark

On the contrary, Bangladesh players are far more reliant on drives and sweeps. Barring Shorna Akter, none of the batters (with 50 T20I runs since 2024) have scored as many in front of the wicket. Some, like Sobhana Mostary and Juairiya Ferdous, haven’t scored even 10 percent of their runs in that region.

All of the above is of course an assessment based on historical evidence, and limited to three of the premier franchise competitions in the women’s game. This data may not be adequate to fully assess the possible patterns in the World Cup, which will include several players who don’t possess the elevated power game of many batters in the top leagues. More batters may make use of the pace on the ball, and prefer playing and innovating shots behind the wicket – sweeps, reverse sweeps, cuts and scoops. Off the front foot, for many of these players, the drive remains a comfort shot.

The power game and techniques are intentionally and rapidly evolving in the women’s game. While the lack of power has played a part in many players not stepping out and attacking the ‘V’ in front of the wicket as often, as several national coaches would admit, it is as much due to the lack of confidence in taking that route as the lack of power itself.

Apart from greater focus on fitness and diet, coaches around the world have also been encouraging players to open up new scoring areas and not allow the bowlers to settle into their lengths. A key way to achieve that includes stepping out and hitting down the ground. Dedicated net sessions are used by coaches to remove this sense of fear – by practising to hit on the up, without the fear of losing their wickets. Yet, in some ways, the run-scoring areas in the premier franchise tournaments (since 2024) are far better distributed in women’s cricket than in the men’s competitions.

The Australian right-handed and left-handed batters, despite employing more power and wider range of strokes, have shown no significant preference for leggies or offspinners in internationals since 2025 – although both have slowed down against orthodox left-arm spin. Similar is the case for Bangladesh batters.

3) Is the ball swinging so much because the matches are happening in England?

Probably. But there is usually a lot more swing in women’s cricket.

Avg degree of swing for quicks in Overs 1-6 (in The Hundred + T20 WC combined) since 2024

In fact, since 2024, in The Hundred and T20 World Cups, 60 percent of the deliveries in the Women’s category had a large swing movement (>1 degree) in the powerplay; the corresponding number in the Men’s game stood at only 33 percent.

The reason, as per various studies conducted to examine the aerodynamics of the cricket ball, is that the optimal speed for a cricket ball to achieve maximum swing ranges at different points from 98 kph to 128 kph. Of course other factors such as the wind speed, tilt of the seam, etc. also matter.

While different studies have come up with different results, it is also uncertain how many of them took into account the ball used in women’s cricket – which is smaller in size and lighter in weight – as compared to the one used in the men’s games. Although the reasons may be inconclusive, the results are evident. Most pacers in women’s cricket operate at a speed of around 100 to 115 kph. If you see the speedometer register a speed of around mid-120s, it’s not an error. That’s just Shabnim Ismail doing what she does – fast bowling.

While there is definitely more swing in the women’s game, there is no drastic change in the amount of movement obtained through seam. These tournaments have also witnessed lesser turn and drift in the women’s competition as compared to the men’s.

Avg turn and drift for spinners (in The Hundred + T20 WC combined) since 2024

Men’s: 2.226 (turn) | 1.200 (drift)

Women’s: 1.944 (turn) | 1.181 (drift)

4) If the power game is improving, will we see more sixes hit in this World Cup than any previous edition?

Maybe, yes. Or, maybe not. Either way, it could come down to the playing conditions. In the last five years, in the T20Is played in England, the average balls taken to hit one six has been as high as 67.5.

This average only shoots up when some of the venues of the tournament are taken into consideration – Edgbaston (71.1), Old Trafford (74.33), Rose Bowl (80.33), County Ground, Bristol (88.87) and Headingley (122). It’s only at The Oval (44.73) and Lord’s (63.28) – the venues of the semis and the final – that the overall average for balls per six drops.

Sixes have been hit far more frequently in some of the other countries. Yet, it may not be as frequent as you are used to witnessing in the men’s game. For example, balls per six in the latest edition of the WPL was 27.51 – which means, for every five sixes hit in the IPL, only two sixes were hit in the WPL. A similar pattern played out in the latest edition of the leagues in Australia and England. In fact,

However, there was no dearth of boundaries being hit in these women’s competitions. In fact, fours were hit more frequently in the women’s matches than the men’s.

The women’s game, to go with the evolving nature of the T20 format itself, is witnessing a rapid development in its power game, and each succeeding World Cup is likely to witness a drastic shift.

Even as the number of sixes hit in these competitions were significantly lower than those in the men’s competitions, there was also only a marginal difference in the percentage of dot balls faced and the overall boundaries hit. The overall scoring rate itself was barely 1 run per over higher in the men’s game compared to the women’s.

But, as mentioned earlier, playing conditions could also dictate the frequency of sixes. Despite the improved power-game, there hasn’t been a linear rise in the frequency of sixes hit at the World Cups. For example, in the last T20 World Cup, the teams combined to take more balls (131.71) to hit a six than they had ever done previously.

That is not necessarily a commentary on the six-hitting ability of the players as much as it is about the conditions, and also the boundary dimensions itself.

Despite the low number of sixes, the 2024 edition witnessed the third-highest scoring rate – with a low number of dot balls and a high boundary percentage.

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup over the years