Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shared a heartfelt reflection after Harmanpreet Kaur led team won the Women’s ODI World Cup. After years of heartbreak, India finally clinched the title as they defeated South Africa by 52 runs at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
The moment was extra emotional when Indian cricket team’s legends witnessed this on ground themselves. But one thing that caught Ashwin’s eye was heartwarming gesture by the Women’s team to acknowledge their seniors and hand-over the trophy to them during victory lap. Legends like Jhulan Goswami, Anjum Chopra and Mithali Raj were present and they were in tears. Ashwin praised this act, calling it a symbol of the immense respect and gratitude the current generation holds for their trailblazers.
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“Even yesterday, the Indian team gave the trophy to Mithali Raj. Why did they do that? I actually take my hat off to the Indian women’s team for that. The Indian men’s team has never done something like this. Sometimes in front of the media, we say things because that’s the media trend – that ‘this person did this’ or ‘that person did that’. But I haven’t often seen anyone giving true credit to the previous generation. Usually, it becomes about ‘my generation’s team is good’ and ‘your generation’s team wasn’t that great.’ I’ve seen a lot of such discussions,” Ashwin mentioned
🚨🚨 Ravi Ashwin's salute to Indian women cricket team
— Rajiv (@Rajiv1841) November 3, 2025
"They gave the trophy to Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami & dedicated this to previous generation superstars.
Indian men team has never done something like this, we say in front of media but I never seen they gave the credit to… pic.twitter.com/SUCKS5oeTj
“This women’s team – Anjum Chopra was there, Mithali Raj was there – and by handing them the trophy, they allowed them to see with joy that the seeds they once planted and nurtured are now standing tall as winners today. I found that fascinating, unbelievably good. Because this victory that the Indian women achieved-it didn’t come today. It’s the result of 25 years of work, maybe two or even three decades.”
Ashwin mentioned that the victory now stands out as the most impactful of all India’s World Cup wins. The 39-year old believes that the victory is extremely significant and will motivate many young girls to pick up cricket professionally.
“I would put this and rate this as an even bigger and colossal achievement than any World Cup we have done and any other World Cup that has been won, because this has the ability to bring the girls out there to practice the game of cricket and take up the sport seriously as a career option. It is going to change the mindset and conditioning of everybody associated with Indian women and Indian women’s cricket,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
