ICC Women’s T20 WC Asia Qualifier 2025 – ICC WOMEN’S T20 WORLD CUP ASIA QUALIFIER COMES TO THE LAND OF SMILES

ICC WOMEN’S T20 WORLD CUP ASIA QUALIFIER COMES TO THE LAND OF SMILES

The ICC have chosen Bangkok in Thailand as the venue for the Asian Qualifier for the Women’s T20 World Cup on several occasions such has been Thailand Women’s dominance of Asian cricket at this level over the past decade and more. Nine teams are competing for two places in the global qualifier for the next Women’s T20 World Cup.

Mohideen Kader, CEO Cricket Association of Thailand, welcomed the competing teams in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asian Qualifier.

‘I would like to welcome all the competing teams to Thailand and hope they enjoy their stay in the Land of Smiles. The nine best teams from across Asia should provide a wonderful competition with a fantastic conclusion as the two qualifiers are decided.’

Thailand have reached the main ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier on every occasion since 2013 when they travelled to Ireland to play in the Women’s World T20 Qualifier They even qualified for the main Women’s T20 World Cup when it was held in Australia in 2020 by reaching the final of the previous Qualifier held in Scotland.

This time Thailand will face strong competition from United Arab Emirates and Nepal who are the second and third seeds in this tournament. Hong Kong, China and Malaysia have also been playing quality cricket in recent months and their contests against Nepal and UAE respectively should be highly exciting.

UAE Women are actually defending champions of the Asia Qualifier as they beat Thailand in the final of the last event held in Malaysia and they also have a good record in this tournament as they have reached the global qualifier three times since 2018. In September 2023 UAE beat Thailand by 6 runs in Kuala Lumpur as they defended a total of 70 in a match dominated by the bowlers.

UAE also beat Thailand in the semi-finals of the ACC Premier Cup also held in Malaysia in February when a remarkable 16 Asian teams played to qualify for the Women’s Asia Cup. The four group winners were UAE, Malaysia, Thailand and Nepal with UAE beating Thailand and Malaysia overcoming Nepal.

Women’s cricket is developing fast in the Asian region with the result that nine teams are competing here for two places in the next ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier which will lead to the next Women’s T20 World Cup which will be held in England in 2026.

There is a new exciting format for this tournament so the leading teams will have to work hard and play quality cricket to reach the final stages. The teams have been divided into three groups with top seeds Thailand drawn with Kuwait and Bhutan in Group B. UAE face the improving Malaysians and Qatar in Group B, while Nepal take on Hong Kong, China and Bahrain in Group C.

Thailand should be too strong for Kuwait and Bhutan in Group A, but Malaysia could surprise UAE in Group B and Nepal and Hong Kong, China are only separated by one place in the world rankings in Group C. Each team plays the other teams in their groups twice so the strongest three teams should win the three groups.

We then will have a Super Three stage with the three winners of the groups playing off for the two places available in the global qualifier when the final teams who will travel to England for the 2026 World Cup will be decided.

The two teams who qualify from Asia will compete against teams from the other regional qualifiers and the lower ranked teams who played in the previous Women’s T20 World Cup which was held in UAE last year and saw two surprise finalists emerge with New Zealand beating South Africa by 32 runs.

All the competing teams have been playing regular cricket recently with Thailand beating UAE in Bangkok earlier in the week to re-assert their authority while Hong Kong, China and Kuwait also played in the tournament. Hong Kong, China have been on tour to Sri Lanka and Maryam Omar of Kuwait is a quality player to watch out for.

Nepal and Malaysia can play excellent cricket on their day and the top five teams in the competition are all ranked between 11^th and 28^th places in the T20I rankings so we should see some close encounters at TCG and AIT cricket grounds where the tournament is being held over the next two weeks.

The first matches are played on 9^th May with the final three matches for the three group winners getting underway on 18^th May. We should see some excellent cricket from the cream of Asian women’s teams at this level.

The captains and coaches of the nine competing teams attended the officials meetings on the day before the tournament and all were focused on qualifying for the next stage with the dream of a place with the elite in the main T20 World Cup held in England in 2026.