And so it ends. Australia have done what Australia are known for, and left everyone else in their wake. Before your memory goes to the men's teams of the late-1990s and early-2000s, stop. The Australian women's team had already achieved more even before this tournament. To have won six out of the eight previous editions of T20 World Cups makes it fitting to say Barcelona are Australia-eque and not the other way around. Australia's women are the dominant force in the global game, and though they did not come into this tournament as defending champions, their win - without dropping a game - was barely a surprise. That no one pushed them harder is the real story of this World Cup.
India came closest when they set Australia the highest chase in a T20 World Cup match. Australia won it with an over to spare. England, unbeaten until they met Australia in the final, were no match either, despite the significant strides they have made since the last tournament, where they were knocked out before the semis. Therein lay the biggest surprise.
England, fitter than before, have an inspirational coach in Charlotte Edwards, are well-led by Nat Sciver-Brunt, have an aggressive opening batter, Danni Wyatt-Hodge; two big-hitting allrounders, Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson; a decent spin attack; and one of the best swing bowlers in the game in Lauren Bell. Still, they were no match for Australia. While Sciver-Brunt cautioned against drawing absolute conclusions, saying England didn't show their best in the final, and that the gap was probably closer than that match showed, finals are where it matters most. So we still have to ask: If the next best team at the tournament are that far behind, what does it say about the rest? And have we already got to the stage where catching up is impossible, given the headstart Australia have and the resource gap between them and everyone else?
If you ask Hayley Matthews, the answer to the latter question is yes. For West Indies, reaching the semi-finals seemed like such a stretch that anything more always looked a step too far. Them beating defending champions New Zealand (another team who have taken steps back, as their golden generation bow out) was both sensational and symptomatic of their struggles: not enough of their players are consistent. The architect of that victory, Shemaine Campbelle, made more runs in that one innings than in her other five at the tournament combined. Her 90 not out made headlines, but all the evidence suggests it was a one-off. Champion teams are not built on happy accidents like that.
For West Indies, the geography of the islands impacts the logistics and costs of arranging training camps and programmes, and they are also financially further behind many other teams to start with as well. As a result, their pathway system is underdeveloped. As Matthews said, they are not able to produce players like Phoebe Litchfield, who played the WBBL as a teenager and, at 23, shared in a century stand to win a World Cup final. Litchfield's outrageous talent may be an exception but if someone like her exists in the Caribbean, they are likely to be more difficult to find and then to be fine-tuned into the finished article for international cricket.
A team who don't seem to have trouble unearthing talent are Bangladesh, arguably the most improved side in this tournament, although the results don't show it yet. They beat Pakistan and Netherlands, and challenged India and South Africa, despite never having played an international in England before this World Cup.
It didn't help Bangladesh that the tournament they were scheduled to host, the 2024 T20 World Cup, had to be moved to the UAE because of civil unrest. In home conditions, they could have been in contention for several wins. They will be eyeing the next edition, due to be played in Pakistan in 2028, as their opportunity to make a big leap.
And so to Pakistan, who have regressed more than any other team. They only beat newcomers Netherlands, and appear to be up against insurmountable issues.
Their allrounder captain Fatima Sana, who has played in T20 leagues in New Zealand and the Caribbean, and will play in this year's Hundred in the UK. Sana herself has cited the lack of T20 league exposure as a limitation for her country's players, but Pakistan women's coach Wahab Riaz chose a more diplomatic response: "If you are a good performer, teams all around the world will pick you up. Fatima is doing that [...] the others [...] if they're going to perform well and continuously, they will get a lot of opportunities to play all around the world."
But we know it's not that simple. For political reasons, Pakistan players cannot be picked in the WPL, which is the fastest-growing and richest league. And with Indian franchises now investing in the Hundred, and possibly the WBBL and the NZ20 in the future, the window of opportunity for Pakistan players could be narrowing. As an indicator of how important it is to play in established overseas competitions, consider Scotland, whose players are active in English cricket and who looked a better side than Ireland, whose players, by virtue of their Full Member status, do not feature on the English domestic scene.
While Scotland were never in the conversation to win the trophy, they had moments in this World Cup when they could dream of a semi-final spot. But though cricket is growing in Associate nations, the fact that they are being compared to Pakistan tells you more about Pakistan's problems than Associate progress.
One solution for Pakistan could be for the PCB to start their own league, mirroring the PSL, which many men's players have praised for its competitiveness. But there appears to be no will to make that happen. While there were exhibition matches in the past, there is no senior women's franchise T20 tournament in Pakistan and that seems to be contributing to setting the game into reverse gear.
Look no further than South Africa to see this in action. It took Cricket South Africa a decade and a half to launch a men's T20 league, and even now there is no suggestion of a women's SA20 in the offing. Given the calendar crunch and the concerns about depth in the domestic game, CSA is treading cautiously, but you still have to ask: what comes first, the league or the players? CSA says that the professionalisation of the women's game after the 2023 T20 World Cup was a start, but it is still more like semi-professionalisation, and South Africa's stuttering performances in this tournament perhaps present the most cause for concern.
They are not part of cricket's big three. The health of the game outside of those nations is often measured by South Africa's fortunes, which recently have been on an upward curve. In the last four years, they have reached four ICC women's finals (the 2023 T20 World Cup, 2024 T20 World Cup, 2025 Under-19 World Cup, and 2025 ODI World Cup) and two men's ones (2024 T20 World Cup and 2025 World Test Championship). They have been serial semi-finalists. The nation continues to hold its collective breath for a trophy but it seems to be moving further away from their grasp.
This time, South Africa, despite reaching the semis, were unconvincing. Recalling retirees Dane van Niekerk and Shabnim Ismail can be interpreted as a recognition of the lack of progress in developing new talent. And most of their big stars did not light up the event. As a country with a culture of sporting excellence, a reasonable cricket economy, and functioning high-performance structures, South Africa has some of the ingredients for success but still not the full recipe. Perhaps they just had a bad few weeks and will be back, but there is a sense it will take something more to get them over the line.
Creating depth from the grassroots has been a talking point across men's and women's cricket in South Africa, and it's not something that can be fixed quickly. For now, it could mean the women's side's best opportunity for a trophy has passed them by. They will look back at the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup final against New Zealand, who exited this edition early, and wonder if that should have been the one they won. They will also know that India, who beat them in the 2025 ODI World Cup final, could soon also add a T20 title to their name.
Realistically, India, with their financial and personnel clout, are the likeliest to challenge Australia in the long term. In this tournament, they faced selection and strategic questions, which are good problems to have. Their failure to make it out of the group stage was down to tactics and not lack of resources. India will move on from some of their current generation fo players in the not-too-distant future, and once they get their combinations right, they could become a force themselves. Whether they can do that quickly enough to break Australia's vice-like grip on trophies is something to keep an eye on.
Perhaps the worst news for everyone else is not that Australia are already so far ahead but that they genuinely think they can go further. "We don't think we've reached any ceilings yet," Sophie Molineux, Australia's captain, said after the final. "This team has got generational talent." We may just have to accept that in women's cricket, we have been and still continue to be in Australia's era.