TOISA 2025: India women's cricket teams sweep Team of the Year awards

Lucknow, Sunday: Indian women’s cricket completed a historic double at the Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) 2025 on Saturday night, with the national women’s team and the national blind women’s team jointly claiming the prestigious Team of the Year honours in a glittering ceremony held in the Uttar Pradesh capital.

The joint accolade recognised a watershed 12 months for both outfits during the evaluation window of 1 January–31 December 2025. In a period dominated by Indian women on the global stage, the mainstream side captured the country’s first-ever ICC Women’s ODI World Cup, sweeping through the tournament unbeaten to lift the trophy. The blind women’s side mirrored that dominance by winning the inaugural Blind Women’s T20 World Cup, also without losing a single match on their way to the title.

Saturday’s awards, covering more than 45 sporting disciplines, were decided by an elite jury of Indian sporting legends: Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra, hockey stalwart PR Sreejesh, former India women’s Test captain Mithali Raj, table-tennis great Achanta Sharath Kamal, tennis icon Leander Paes and multiple Paralympic gold-medallist Devendra Jhajharia. The panel underlined that the dual winners embodied the year’s overarching narrative—Indian women breaking new ground in both able-bodied and disability sport.

While the senior women’s side ended a 42-year wait for an ODI World Cup crown, the blind team carved out an entirely new chapter by becoming the first champions in the shortest-format showcase. Their parallel triumphs book-ended a calendar year in which Indian women’s cricket, across formats and abilities, commanded world attention.

TOISA 2025, hosted in Lucknow for the first time, drew the who’s who of Indian sport, but the loudest cheers were reserved for the two teams that stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the winners’ podium—proof that Indian women’s cricket, irrespective of the arena, now sets the benchmark for excellence.