Picture Credit : BCCI/ICC
As per the latest update from South African cricket board, South Africa Women will play another series before the 2026 women’s T20 World Cup. It will be a five match home series against India Women in April. The venues are decided with Durban to host the first two matches on April 17 and 19 and Johannesburg will host the next two on April 22 and 25. Benoni will host the last game of the series on April 27. This series will follow South Africa Women’s T20I and ODI series against Pakistan Women in February-March. South Africa will also tour New Zealand in March-April before returning home for the T20Is against India. So they have a packed calendar and they will be well prepared going into the World T20 later this year. South Africa Women have done extremely well in international circuit and ICC tournaments in the last 3 years
CSA director of national teams Enoch Nkwe, said “Facing a team of India’s quality so close to a World Cup is exactly what the Proteas Women need at this stage of the preparation. It gives them an opportunity to test themselves against a top-level opponent, fine-tune their combinations and ensure they are executing their plans under pressure. This series will play a key role in sharpening the team’s readiness ahead of the T20 World Cup.”
On the other hand, India Women are currently in the WPL and will be touring Australia for a multi-format series in February-March before travelling to South Africa. After that, they will play a three T20I series in England starting May before the T20 World Cup. South Africa were the runners up in the last two editions of the T20 World Cup, apart from being the runners-up at the 2025 ODI World Cup.
India’s best performance at the T20 World Cup was as runners up in 2020. In 2024, they were knocked out in the first round. But with the 50 over World Cup win, there is a lot of expectations from India Women this time in the World T20. The upcoming 2026 women’s T20 World Cup will be hosted by England and starts on June 12. The groups are already announced with South Africa and India both in Group 1 of the tournament, alongside Australia, Pakistan and two more teams from qualifiers
