Australia Women’s all-rounder Ash Gardner is confident of the team’s strong comeback in the 2026 T20 World Cup, scheduled to begin from June 12 in England and Wales. The claim comes after the team’s disappointing loss in the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 semi-final against India.
During an interview with AAP, Gardner discussed the possibilities of Australia Women’s chance of performing better in the World Cup. “You have to think about that, don’t you?” Gardner said.
“The last couple of World Cups have been frustrating because of the way that they’ve ended. But I can sit here comfortably and say that I still believe that we’re the best team. It’s just making sure that we’re showing that in those moments where it really matters. So I’m certainly thinking about June next year, it seems like a long time away, but it realistically isn’t and it’ll come around very quickly,” she added.
Gardner further says that the team will be doing changes to make a stronger comeback, but not drastic ones.
“I think there’s not going to be too many dramatic changes. I don’t think there necessarily needs to be. It’s more those small moments that I don’t think we won and kind of letting the game go in ebbs and flows,” she also mentioned.
Australia Women will return in action for the 2026 season, starting with a multi-format series against India Women in February and March. They will be playing three ODIs and three T20Is followed by a one-off Test in Perth. The series will be crucial in Australia’s Women’s preparation for the T20 World Cup. In the tournament, Australia are paired in Group A alongside India, Pakistan, South Africa and two teams from the Global Qualifier.
In the 2025 Women’s Cricket ODI World Cup, Australia Women were knocked out in the semi-final by India after losing the match by five wickets. Previously, in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final, they had lost against South Africa. Both defeats mark Australia Women’s consecutive loss in the semi-finals of the ICC tournaments.
Besides this, for the first time, the Australian Women’s team hasn’t won a T20 and ODI World Cup trophy since 2022. However, Australia remains one of the most dominating teams of the Women’s T20 World Cup with six victories out of the nine editions played so far, including the inaugural edition in 2009.
