Ashleigh G Says Australia Is Top Team, Warns India Will Be Tough to Be

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 7 January 2026

• Ashleigh Gardner believes that the current best women’s cricket side is Australia
• She recognizes that: “India, the winner of the previous ODI World Cup, is emerging as a very competitive side“

Ashleigh Gardner hailed Australia as the strongest women's cricket team at the moment, but also conceded that the recently-crowned ODI World Cup champions India were shaping into a very competitive team for the next decade.

Ashleigh, who was a part of the Australian team which lost to India in, last year's Women's World Cup semifinal, said Harmanpreet Kaur and the Indian team are by far getting better.

“India is going to be one of those teams in the next five to ten years that will be very hard to beat,” Ashleigh said. She added, while this would sound exciting for the game, the rapid growth of women’s cricket in India was an exciting and challenging proposition for Australia.

She, despite this World Cup defeat, insists Australia remains the world's best team: “World Cups show who can perform at that high-pressure moment. If we had to play any team ten times in a row, I'd say we probably would win eight or nine times. That does sound confident, but I still believe we are the best team in the world,” she said, adding that India presented a strong challenge.

Before the Women’s Premier League (WPL), scheduled to start on January 9, Ashleigh stated that the fact that the Gujarat Giants do not have a first-class Indian batter in their roster would not impact the team’s chances.

Although the Gujarat Giants have only Renuka Singh Thakur, who is part of the World Cup-winning Indian team, they do have international batters in Beth Mooney, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, and Sophie Devine.

Adding to that, Ashleigh said a confident boost for the team is to have Renuka in the playing eleven. "Renuka has been playing for India for a long time. It's always an advantage to have a person whom you can trust with your key overs," she said.

Talking about their plans for the women’s T20 World Cup that will take place later this year in England, Renuka Singh Thakur stated that “The Indian players are now focused on achieving the next goals. We had won the World Cup, enjoyed the atmosphere, and then resumed our training to play the Sri Lanka series. Now, our target is clear, and our focus is to keep the same level.”