For years, the one question that loomed over the Indian women's team was: when will they get their hands on an ICC trophy? It was like excess baggage that went with the team whenever they packed to go anywhere; they didn't want any of it, but they couldn't get rid of it either.
The 2017 ODI World Cup final at Lord's gave them heartbreak but also fuelled their belief that they weren't too far away. The 2020 T20 World Cup final reminded them why Australia were so ruthlessly dominant, and how big a gulf existed between the two finalists.
The 2025 ODI World Cup triumph was, therefore, a watershed moment in more ways than many can imagine. It's making young girls dream big at grassroots level, it's attracting more commercial deals for the players, and it's putting their faces not just on billboards across the country but also on international magazine covers.
Seven months later, as another global tournament approaches, the narrative around India is vastly different from how it has been over the last decade. For T20 World Cup 2026 in England, the question for India now is: can they make it two in a row?
When Harmanpreet Kaur's side ended one of the longest waits in Indian cricket in November, it instilled newfound belief in the players, and made the questions around their mental toughness vanish almost overnight.
"The team is very charged up," Jemimah Rodrigues told JioStar before leaving for the UK. "What has happened with that World Cup [victory] is that it has empowered and motivated us to do well. You win one and - it's like a negative word - but it's like an addiction. You want to win another one; it pushes you more. And this group is showing that so much."
When India hosted Sri Lanka for five T20Is in December 2025, the euphoria of lifting the ODI trophy was only a month-and-a-half-old, but the team's gaze was already locked on what was just six months away: the T20 World Cup.
They handed T20I debuts to two teenagers in wicketkeeper-batter G Kamalini and left-arm spinner Vaishnavi Sharma, they tried different combinations in the bowling attack, they chased down totals with ease, and they posted their highest T20I total of 221 to finish with a 5-0 scoreline.
"Winning is a habit. If you cultivate good habits, I think you're on the right track," head coach Amol Muzumdar told JioStar during India's camp in Bengaluru before their departure for the UK.
Being the ODI world champions will, however, bring its own challenges. Even though pressure can't be quantified, it's possible that what rests on the Indian team's shoulders as they chase their maiden T20 title this summer is a pressure as great as, if not greater than, what travelled with them to different parts of the country during the home World Cup last year.
This T20 World Cup will test whether the habit Muzumdar speaks of can be cultivated when the taste of success is still fresh. The motivation from being ODI champions has unquestionably left the team wanting more, and the fans eyeing more ICC silverware. Success, after all, raises expectations internally and externally.
"Our mindset and feelings are the same because we all know we have been working really hard for so many years," Harmanpreet told JioStar. "So, finally, last year we won - that too at home. Now it's about getting all the confidence from that tournament because home conditions are always very difficult. But [with] the World Cup in England, there will also be pressure on us because we have set a standard for ourselves.
"Everybody, especially our Indian fans, will be watching us more closely, and I'm sure we've attracted even more fans. I think now it's only about getting all the confidence [from] what we have done in the past and just play the best cricket because we all will talk about giving our 100% on the field. I think that shows how much hunger you have for any tournament."
The captain's words reflect that India are not merely facing the pressure anymore, but have learned to embrace it. It's likely the result of downing Australia in a historic chase in the 2025 World Cup semi-final under immense pressure, when Rodrigues' unbeaten century took them home. It's also likely because the team they took down in the final, South Africa, had been far more consistent than India in making the semi-finals and finals of recent World Cups in both formats, and clearing the final hurdle in an ICC finale was a relief greater than any for the hosts.
India will also benefit more than anyone else from the fact that the T20 World Cup comes so close on the heels of the ODI trophy. They no longer carry any baggage from the past, no burden of being called second-best, and no tears over falling just short at the final hurdle. At the same time, the players will realise that staying at the top is perhaps harder than getting there.
"We know we are going to get good competition," Rodrigues said. "We know people are going to come hard at us, especially after winning a World Cup; every team will want to defeat team India. And we take pride in that because we want to defeat every other team and win another World Cup."
Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana was in the best form of her career leading into the ODI World Cup last year, and will again be expected to lead the top order, even if in a different format. She points out that four seasons of the WPL, of which she has won two as captain for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has helped India grow in confidence in a format where they weren't as big a threat as they were in ODIs.
"We want to continue the good form we've had, especially having the success of the 50-over World Cup," Mandhana said before leaving for the bilateral series against England in May.
"Of course, the WPL was also good for a lot of players, and to get that experience, plus the T20 series win in Australia [which India won 2-1 in February] was good. Having said that, with cricket, it's all about how you start fresh. But more than anything, I feel with this team, they're really hungry in terms of doing the right things.
"For sure, the one-day format is a lot more comfortable format for the Indian team because we like the format a lot more. But we've done extremely well in the last one [or] two years. Playing the WPL as well has given us a lot of confidence in this format."
The stamp of the WPL is evident in the younger faces of India's squad for the T20 World Cup. Twenty-four-year-old Nandani Sharma made her T20I debut only two weeks before the T20 World Cup, after finishing the last WPL as the joint-top wicket-taker with Sophie Devine. Richa Ghosh started playing for India in the same year the WPL was launched, and she has honed her finishing and six-hitting skills against the top bowlers in the world in that competition.
Shafali Verma has shed the tag of being inconsistent with her accumulation of runs in the WPL, currently among the top-four scorers in the league, and only second behind Harmanpreet among Indians, while averaging over 33 and striking at over 152. Bharti Fulmali might be 31, but her strike rate of 147 and eight sixes in 81 balls for Gujarat Giants in WPL 2026 earned her a late bloomer's India call-up as a finisher, especially after Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam were ruled out with injuries.
The other team ranked above India in the ICC T20I rankings apart from Australia, despite not being world champions, are England, who have home comforts this time, the first time since they lifted the ODI trophy in front of a near-full house at Lord's nine years ago. But India neither see the opposition nor the conditions in England as too much of a threat.
"We won the ODI and T20 series in England in 2025. That gave us a lot of confidence that if we can beat England in England, then with this squad, the sky is the limit," Muzumdar said. "It carried us really well into the World Cup."
That 3-2 series win last summer was India's first on English soil in T20Is, set up by back-to-back wins at the start of the series. The barrier India broke in those games was defending two totals after losing the toss, often a stiff challenge in the format.
The other marked difference from the home World Cup last year will be the lack of the home fans who thronged the stadiums in Gwalior, Indore, Visakhapatnam and Navi Mumbai, wearing India jerseys with "Smriti", "Harman", and "Jemi" written on their backs. But who said there won't be Indian fans in England?
"Whenever we play in England, we get huge support from the fans, and [in] this World Cup also, I think, whenever we'll take the field, we're going to see massive support from our fans," Harmanpreet said.
The questions ahead of India's five league games are not whether they can go all the way or if they have the hunger to become champions. The real test is if that hunger will become a habit, and if the good vibes from 2025 can translate into another world title.