Mumbai, November 6: The line-up for the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy 2027 is set. India will host Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka in a new six-team T20I tournament from 14 to 28 February, with matches at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai and the Vadodara International Cricket Stadium.
The event adds a third major global title to the women’s international calendar, alongside the Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Women’s T20 World Cup. For India, it means the first edition of a world event will be played entirely on home soil.
How the six teams qualified
India earned their place automatically as hosts. The other five spots went to teams on their positions in the ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings at the cut-off date of 6 July 2026.
The result is a compact field made up of the strongest sides in the shortest format. There are no qualifiers or minnows to pad the schedule. Every fixture brings together two of the world’s leading T20I teams.
Format: 15 league matches, then a final
The tournament runs as a single round-robin league. Each side plays the other five once, giving 15 league matches. The top two teams on the table advance straight to the final on 28 February, making 16 matches in all.
With no semi-finals, there is little room for error. A side that drops two of its five league games may well need results elsewhere to go its way, and net run rate could decide the second place in the final.
Home advantage for India
Both venues are familiar ground for the Indian side. India played Zimbabwe in a women’s ODI series in Vadodara only last month, when Deepti Sharma ended a nine-year wait for an ODI century. The Cricket Club of India, home of the Brabourne Stadium, gives Mumbai’s cricket followers a chance to watch a global women’s event in one of the country’s best-known grounds.
India go into the build-up in good form. They completed 3-0 sweeps of Zimbabwe in both the T20I and ODI series in October, and Deepti has been shortlisted for the ICC Women’s Player of the Month award for her all-round displays in those games.
The rivals
Australia, with Phoebe Litchfield among their leading batters, remain the benchmark in the women’s game and arrive with the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 title behind them. England, New Zealand and South Africa all bring experience of knockout cricket at ICC events, while Sri Lanka have shown they can trouble the bigger sides on subcontinental pitches.
For India, the target is clear: finish in the top two of the league and give a home crowd a final to remember.
Women’s Champions Trophy 2027 at a glance
- Dates: 14 to 28 February 2027
- Host: India
- Venues: Cricket Club of India, Mumbai; Vadodara International Cricket Stadium, Vadodara
- Format: T20I, single round-robin league, top two to the final
- Teams: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka
- Matches: 16 (15 league games and the final)
Read our earlier report on India being named host of the Women’s Champions Trophy, and follow more Indian cricket team news.
