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India (AP) — The triumph comes after a concerted effort in India to get over the hump. At the last World Cup in 2022, India failed to even make it out of the group stage, a debacle that rankled officials at home and led to increased urgency to boost the women’s game.

The Women’s Premier League, an idea that had long seemed a pipe dream, was launched the next year. Three seasons later, top names who emerged from the Twenty20 league were key to India’s victory. Medium-pacer Kranti Goud (nine wickets in eight matches) and left-arm spinner Shree Charani (14 wickets in nine matches) made their international debuts earlier in 2025.

It could be just the start.

India’s great Sachin Tendulkar compared the elation from Sunday’s win to that in 1983 when India won the men’s World Cup for the first time.

“1983 inspired an entire generation to dream big and chase those dreams,” Tendulkar wrote on X. “Today, our women’s cricket team has done something truly special. They have inspired countless young girls across the country to pick up a bat and ball, take the field and believe that they too can lift that trophy one day.”

India’s latest champions paid tribute to women who paved the way for them.

After collecting their winners’ medals on Sunday night and posing for the official team photos long after midnight local time, the women passed the trophy to former India players in attendance. They included Jhulan Goswami, who took 43 wickets in five World Cups and was part of the team that lost the 2017 final.

Goswami was sure the wait for the next trophy would be a lot shorter.

“This self-belief and the mindset to develop individually as players will forge them stronger as a team,” Goswami said. “This will set a benchmark for future Indian teams to come back even in tough situations because they will know how to do it.”