ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 is set to kick off on March 4, 2022 at the Bay Oval in Tauranga. Hosts New Zealand will take on West Indies in the opening game of the The tournament
India on the other hand, will start their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on March 6. Another high voltage clash is going to be played on March 5 when Australia will take on the defending champions England at Seddon Park in Hamilton.
Total 31 games will be played across 31 days in the Women's World Cup with eight teams battling to lift the coveted World Cup trophy. Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Tauranga, and Wellington will be the six cities that will host the World Cup.
Australia, England, South Africa and India qualified for the event on the basis of their position in ICC Women's Championship 2017-20. The champions of the 2000 ICC Women’s World Cup, New Zealand, automatically qualified for the next year’s event as they were the host nation.
Hosts New Zealand would want to replicate the performance they had produced when 20 years back the Kiwis bagged the ICC event. Interestingly, the 2000 edition was also hosted by New Zealand.
Just like the previous 2017 edition, the 2022 Women’s World Cup will also be played in a league format with all the eight teams facing each other once. After the conclusion of the league matches the top four teams will qualify for the semifinals.
The first semi-final is slated to be played at The Basin Reserve in Wellington on March 30 while The Hagley Oval in Christchurch will organise the second semi-final on March 31. The final will take place on April 3. Both the semi-finals and the final will have a reserve day in place.
Notably, the Women’s World Cup is also going to mark the return of the women's global event since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The last global women's tournament played was the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia in March 2020. The hosts managed to secure the World Cup by defeating India in the final.
On the basis of the ODI Team Rankings, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies were the final three teams to confirm their berth for the World Cup after 2021 the Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifiers were called off due to Covid-19.
