ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025: How the teams qualified

The start of 2025 sees the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup take place in Malaysia, with 16 teams set to battle it out to become champions.

The second edition of the tournament gets underway on 18 January, with the final taking place on 2 February, but the journey has been going on for far longer for some nations.

Teams have spent the past few months battling it out just to book their tickets to Malaysia, with regional qualifiers held across Africa, Asia, East-Asia Pacific and Europe.

Here is how the teams qualified:

Automatic Qualification

Eleven teams automatically secured their berth at the 2025 tournament, starting with Malaysia as hosts.

Malaysia will be making their debut at the tournament, after missing out on the inaugural edition in 2023 following defeat in the Asia Qualifier, which they hosted.
They are joined by the top 10 full member sides from the 2023 tournament, whose performances in South Africa automatically secured their spots at the next edition.

That means champions India, are back to defend their title, while 2023 runners-up England will have eyes on going one step further this time around.

Australia and New Zealand were the beaten semi-finalists last time around, and they are joined in automatic qualification by Bangladesh, Ireland, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies after they all reached the Super Six stage.

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Africa Qualifier

Nigeria emerged victorious from the Africa Qualifier, marking the first time a Nigerian women’s side has qualified for an ICC World Cup event.

After an earlier qualifier determined that Malawi and Kenya would join the eight-team qualifying tournament, Nigeria won all three of their matches against Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Malawi to progress to the semi-finals.

They were joined by Uganda, who also won all three of their group matches, as well as Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

Nigeria saw off hosts Rwanda by 62 runs in their semi-final and faced Zimbabwe in the final which was stopped in the second innings due to rain stopping play.

That meant Nigeria progressed to the World Cup in Malaysia because they finished above Zimbabwe in the group stage.

Asia Qualifier

The Asia Qualifier was contested between four sides, with Nepal coming out on top of the double round-robin format.

Nepal won five out of their six matches against the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Thailand and Kuwait, edging top spot ahead of the UAE by virtue of a superior net run rate.

The UAE earned victory in the pair’s opening match in Dubai, winning by 13 runs but Nepal held their nerve to win the sides’ second match by eight wickets.

Player of the Match Krishma Gurung produced figures of four for 17 with the ball to restrict the UAE to 83 for nine which Nepal chased down in 14.4 overs, booking their place in Malaysia in the process.

East-Asia Pacific

The East-Asia Pacific Qualifier saw four teams compete for a place at the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025.

Hosts Indonesia were joined by Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Fiji across a week of double round-robin competition in May, with Samoa eventually qualifying thanks to five wins from their six matches.

Samoa’s only defeat came to Papua New Guinea, who eventually finished third, with the group winners doing the double over second-placed Indonesia to ensure they progressed.

Olive Lefaga’s spell of three for 13 was crucial to Samoa winning the first match against Indonesia by two wickets before Silepea Polataivao finished with six for 15 as Samoa clinched the second fixture by eight runs.

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Europe

Scotland emerged victorious from a three-match series against Netherlands to qualify for the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025.

Scotland won all three matches in Aberdeen in August, opening with a ten-wicket victory inspired by Mollie Parker’s three for eight with the ball.

A six-wicket victory followed a day later to secure qualification before the series was rounded off with a 64-run win, batter Emma Walsingham starring with 73 not out off 49 balls.

Americas

United States of America automatically qualified for the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025, as they were the only nation in the region to fulfil the criteria required.
The USA finished fourth in Group A at the 2023 edition, before they lost to Scotland in the fourth-place play-offs.