India’s mission to build a global women’s cricket dynasty advanced apace in 2025. Few will forget the sight of Harmanpreet Kaur’s team converging joyously on the field at the DY Patil Stadium to celebrate a fairytale World Cup win that was five decades in the making.

That final was the highlight of a year that included only one Test match – the Ashes affair at Melbourne at the end of January. As ever, therefore, the Spin’s team of the year is cross-format, though we gave substantial weight to performances at crunch moments in the aforementioned World Cup.

And if anyone is wondering why there are only two England players in this team, you must have forgotten how 2025 started. Fair enough – most English fans are still trying to forget it, too. Top of Nat Sciver-Brunt and co’s Santa wishlist is a brighter year ahead.

1. Smriti Mandhana (India)
In June, Mandhana’s teammates berated her for having never scored a Twenty20 hundred. “You are not doing justice to your talent,” Radha Yadav told her. Smriti’s response, three days later at Trent Bridge, was to nail down the three-figure milestone in 51 balls. She celebrated by pointing up at Radha on the balcony.

It was all presumably a bit tongue-in-cheek, given that Smriti was enjoying the most prolific year of any female cricketer in history. She scored 1,362 ODI runs in 2025 – the previous record was Belinda Clark’s 970 from 1997 – and now has 17 international hundreds across all formats, more than anyone bar Meg Lanning. RCB recently retained her for the 2026 Women’s Premier League for 3.5 crore – the maximum price, but still somehow a bargain when it buys you the services of a player this classy.

2. Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa) – captain
During South Africa’s recent T20 against Ireland, an awestruck fan was interviewed after watching Wolvaardt strike her fourth international century of the year. “She’s Miss 360,” he said. “That’s the best hundred I’ve seen at Newlands.”

For the second year in succession, Wolvaardt captains the Spin’s XI, and for good reason. If everyone could have played like Wolvaardt, South Africa would have won a World Cup this year. First, she had to pick up her team from the doldrums of 69 all out against England and convince them they were potential tournament winners. Then she batted her heart out with back-to-back hundreds in the semi-final and final. It wasn’t to be this time, but on the day it does happen you can bet that Wolvaardt (and her cover drive) will be at the heart of the action.

3. Jemimah Rodrigues (India)
Rodrigues bookended 2025 with two hundreds – against Ireland in January and Australia in October – but the real story is what happened in between. She had to battle the uncertainty of the selectors – she was dropped midway through the World Cup – and her own crippling self-doubt. All the more remarkable, then, that she managed to play one of the all-time great innings in the tournament semi-final, shepherding an exhausting run chase against the defending champions while reciting psalms to herself between overs. Three days later, India won a World Cup final – but it was Rodrigues who landed the killer blow.

4. Beth Mooney (Australia) – wicketkeeper
A day after Jon Lewis sidestepped questions about the unfit nature of his team and pontificated about the nice weather in Bondi, a ruddy-cheeked, sweaty Mooney showed him exactly what the difference was between the two teams. First, she scored an unbeaten 94 in the Adelaide T20 – mostly in sprinted singles. Then she kept wicket, seamlessly stepping in for a creaking Alyssa Healy (as she did numerous times across the year). Mooney’s eventual series run tally was a phenomenal 409.

5. Nat Sciver-Brunt (England)
What did you do in those heady newborn days, when life was a haze of nappy changes, milky feeds and snatched bursts of sleep? Sciver-Brunt decided that she would take on one of the hardest jobs in cricket: the England captaincy. As well as attempting to pick up the pieces of the Ashes debacle, she somehow also continued to be England’s best batter, bailing them out of trouble more than once during the World Cup as they staggered through to the knockout phase.

6. Ash Gardner (Australia)
At the start of 2025, Gardner hadn’t struck a hundred in 175 internationals for Australia. Batting at No 6, her task had generally been big-hitting cameos, after those above her scored the bulk of the runs. Over the past 12 months, though, Australia’s top order floundered enough times that Gardner had to find a different role: she still smashes sixes, but she bats long, too. Twice in the World Cup, against New Zealand and England, she dug her side out of a substantial hole, scoring crucial hundreds which turned wobbles into winning situations. She has maintained her ICC No 1 all-rounder ranking, finishing the year with 19 wickets – and if you haven’t watched her “mayo on it” juggle-parry catch at Hobart, go and take a look: you’re in for a treat.

7. Deepti Sharma (India)
Sometimes the cricketing gods write a fitting ending to a World Cup. So it was in 2025, when the last South Africa wicket to fall in the final was claimed by thetournament MVP and leading wicket-taker (22 scalps), Sharma. India’s death-overs hero also stepped up her batting a notch this year, scoring three half-centuries in the World Cup – including a crucial one in the final – and considerably upping her strike-rate.

8. Annabel Sutherland (Australia)
In the year’s single Test at the G, Sutherland’s 163 runs earned her the player of the match award. During the World Cup, her main contribution was with ball in hand, taking 17 wickets and dazzling opponents with her variations. England are struggling with a dearth of all-rounders; meanwhile, Australia possess two of the world’s best: Sutherland is currently locked in a battle with her teammate Gardner over who should be considered the world’s leading jill-of-all-trades. File that one under “nice problem to have”.

9. Sophie Ecclestone (England)
It hasn’t been the easiest of years for Ecclestone. During the Ashes she was thrust into the limelight when Alex Hartley revealed Ecclestone had refused to do a pre-match interview with her former teammate. The social media backlash was so intense that Ecclestone considered quitting cricket altogether. She had to sit out the early English summer due to a dual battle with physical injury and mental health. And yet when she was bowling, all of that baggage fell away, as the wickets continued to fall: 42 of them for England in 2025, including 16 in the World Cup. The key for those around her is to make sure she continues to enjoy her cricket – which might mean staying away from social media the next time something goes wrong.

10. Alana King (Australia)
King started the year tormenting England in the Women’s Ashes and ended it by unleashing one of the best spells of bowling ever seen in a World Cup, finishing with seven for 18 against South Africa. The 30-year-old leg-spinner has honed her craft over many years, and now at last has mastery of the trickiest art in the game: Australia continue to reap the rewards.

11. Marufa Akter (Bangladesh)
Akter hasn’t had the opportunities that others have had – she played just 14 ODIs in 2025, and no T20 Internationals – but this was a breakthrough year for the 20-year-old fast bowler. She was the poster girl of Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign, during which they beat Pakistan and almost toppled the heavyweights of England and South Africa. Her hooping in-swing has to be seen to be believed – her dismissal of Omaima Sohail was, frankly, laws-of-physics-defying – but now she’s showcased it on the global stage, let’s hope some franchise gigs might be in the pipeline.

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