How to Watch The Hundred Women 2026 in India Free — TV, JioHotstar & What It Means for Your Fantasy Teams
A four-week cricket calendar that matters more than it looks: 32 fixtures, eight teams, four Indian players in action, and the only free-to-air 100-ball tournament on the Indian schedule.
The 90-second version for fantasy readers
The Hundred Women's Competition returns on Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at The Oval in London, where MI London Women face Sunrisers Leeds Women in the opener at 7:15 PM IST. The tournament runs for four weeks through the men's and women's finals at Lord's on August 16. In India every match is broadcast live on the Star Sports Network and streamed free on the JioHotstar app and website. Four Indian players — Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma — are spread across three of the eight squads, which is unusually high for a foreign league and the single biggest reason Indian fantasy players should plan around this calendar rather than treat it as a sidebar.
For a fantasy reader the headline is not the broadcast deal. It is the match-window density: the women's competition runs alongside the men's competition in the same windows, the eight franchises use identical names, and the format uses the same 100-ball rules that produced dramatic collapses and boundary flurries last season. Any platform carrying fantasy contests for this tournament will reward the same read-the-conditions instinct that drives an IPL mega-contest team — captain picks who thrive when the pitch slows, differential batters who can clear the rope in the final set, and seamers who can find swing in the powerplay.
Quick read: 32 fixtures, July 21 – August 16. Star Sports and JioHotstar carry every match in India. Eliminator on August 14, both finals at Lord's on August 16. Four Indian players are in the squads — the highest Indian presence in any overseas women's league this season.
How to watch every match live in India
Indian viewers have a clean two-platform setup. Linear television coverage sits on the Star Sports Network, with the specific feed alternating between Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 2, and Star Sports 2 HD depending on simultaneous fixtures. Digital coverage is consolidated on the JioHotstar app and the JioHotstar website, which stream every fixture — women's and men's — for the full four-week window. The combination matters because the men's competition runs in parallel time slots, and JioHotstar is the only platform carrying both feeds in one subscription.
Match timing has been set for the India audience. The first game on July 21 starts at 7:15 PM IST, which is a deliberate early-evening slot for the opening match only. From July 22 onward fixtures fall into two regular slots — 3:30 PM IST and 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM IST — and the playoffs shift to a single 6:45 PM IST slot to clear doubleheaders cleanly. Fans following from work should map the 3:30 PM slot first; that band covers weekend afternoon fixtures and the second game of doubleheaders. The 7:00–7:30 PM slot is where most evenings end up, and that is where fantasy deadline stress will peak.
If you want a second-screen option, FanCode aggregates some international feeds for Indian users and is useful when a match is not on the main Star Sports lineup, though it is a paid service. The free path is straightforward: Star Sports on TV plus JioHotstar on phone, tablet, or browser. There is no geo-block complication for India-based subscribers; the JioHotstar catalog is identical for every Indian account.
One small operational note worth flagging: the toss for each game happens roughly 30 minutes before first ball, which is also the moment most fantasy platforms lock team submission. Treat the toss as your captain and vice-captain decision point, not the team announcement. If you are not tracking toss in real time, set a reminder twenty minutes before first ball.
Eight teams, four Indian players, and why the squad shapes matter
The Hundred Women's 2026 retains the same eight-franchise structure as last season, but the rebrand wave is real and changes how Indian fans should track the squads. MI London is the relaunched franchise taking over the old London Spirit slot; Manchester Super Giants is the renamed Manchester Originals; Sunrisers Leeds replaces Northern Superchargers; Birmingham Phoenix, Trent Rockets, Southern Brave, London Spirit, and Welsh Fire retain their established identities. If you have watched any of the men's teams in this tournament, the women's rosters are now under the same commercial banners.
The Indian presence is unusually heavy for a foreign women's league. Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh both turn out for Manchester Super Giants, which makes that franchise a fantasy must-track on the days Meg Lanning's side plays. Jemimah Rodrigues plays for Southern Brave, and Deepti Sharma has been picked by Sunrisers Leeds — the opening opponent on July 21. The combination means four of the eight squads have at least one Indian on the books, and three of those four Indian players are in the top twenty of the most-followed women's cricketers in India.
The rest of the roster is the usual Hundred mix of full internationals and emerging English talent. Hayley Matthews, Amelia Kerr, and Danni Wyatt-Hodge head the MI London squad. Sophie Devine captains Welsh Fire with Sophie Molineux leading Southern Brave. Ellyse Perry takes Birmingham Phoenix, Charlie Dean leads London Spirit, Ashleigh Gardner is at Trent Rockets, and Danielle Gibson captains Sunrisers Leeds. Meg Lanning captains Manchester Super Giants. Across the eight captains you have five players who would walk into any T20I top five in the world, which is part of why the format's scoring rate runs hot.
From a fantasy reading standpoint, the captaincy distribution is the most important piece of news in the squad announcement. Each Hundred Women's game is one innings of one hundred balls — twenty sets of five — and a captain pick in fantasy terms gets the standard 2x multiplier when the competition uses multiplier scoring, or a flat four-point bonus when the platform uses bonus scoring. Locking the right captain across a five-game week matters far more than the differential pick, because the field tends to over-cluster on two or three marquee names. Mandhana, Lanning, Devine, and Perry are the obvious captain picks; the differential captaincy edge sits with the second-tier internationals — Amelia Kerr, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Ashleigh Gardner — and with the Indian players on their day.
Full match schedule — every fixture, every start time
The full 32-fixture regular season plus the Eliminator and Final are listed below in IST. Game 1 is the Tuesday night opener; the schedule then settles into a mix of afternoon and evening windows through the back end of July. August begins with a pair of doubleheaders before the playoff window opens on August 14. The full schedule for the women's competition, as confirmed at the time of writing:
| Match | Date | Time (IST) | Fixture |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 21 | 7:15 PM | MI London Women vs Sunrisers Leeds Women |
| 2 | July 22 | 7:30 PM | Southern Brave Women vs Welsh Fire Women |
| 3 | July 23 | 7:30 PM | London Spirit Women vs Manchester Super Giants Women |
| 4 | July 24 | 7:30 PM | Birmingham Phoenix Women vs Trent Rockets Women |
| 5 | July 25 | 3:30 PM | Sunrisers Leeds Women vs Southern Brave Women |
| 6 | July 25 | 7:00 PM | Welsh Fire Women vs MI London Women |
| 7 | July 26 | 3:30 PM | Manchester Super Giants Women vs Birmingham Phoenix Women |
| 8 | July 26 | 7:00 PM | Trent Rockets Women vs London Spirit Women |
| 9 | July 27 | 7:30 PM | Southern Brave Women vs MI London Women |
| 10 | July 28 | 7:30 PM | Sunrisers Leeds Women vs Manchester Super Giants Women |
| 11 | July 29 | 4:00 PM | Welsh Fire Women vs Trent Rockets Women |
| 12 | July 29 | 7:30 PM | MI London Women vs London Spirit Women |
| 13 | July 30 | 7:30 PM | Southern Brave Women vs Birmingham Phoenix Women |
| 14 | July 31 | 7:30 PM | Manchester Super Giants Women vs Trent Rockets Women |
| 15 | August 1 | 3:30 PM | Birmingham Phoenix Women vs Welsh Fire Women |
| 16 | August 1 | 7:00 PM | London Spirit Women vs Southern Brave Women |
| 17 | August 2 | 3:30 PM | Trent Rockets Women vs Sunrisers Leeds Women |
| 18 | August 2 | 7:00 PM | MI London Women vs Manchester Super Giants Women |
| 19 | August 3 | 7:30 PM | Welsh Fire Women vs Southern Brave Women |
| 20 | August 4 | 7:30 PM | Sunrisers Leeds Women vs London Spirit Women |
| 21 | August 5 | 4:00 PM | Manchester Super Giants Women vs Welsh Fire Women |
| 22 | August 5 | 7:30 PM | Trent Rockets Women vs Birmingham Phoenix Women |
| 23 | August 6 | 7:30 PM | London Spirit Women vs MI London Women |
| 24 | August 7 | 7:30 PM | Birmingham Phoenix Women vs Sunrisers Leeds Women |
| 25 | August 8 | 3:30 PM | MI London Women vs Trent Rockets Women |
| 26 | August 8 | 7:00 PM | Southern Brave Women vs Manchester Super Giants Women |
| 27 | August 9 | 3:30 PM | Sunrisers Leeds Women vs Welsh Fire Women |
| 28 | August 9 | 7:00 PM | London Spirit Women vs Birmingham Phoenix Women |
| 29 | August 10 | 7:30 PM | Trent Rockets Women vs Southern Brave Women |
| 30 | August 11 | 7:30 PM | Manchester Super Giants Women vs Sunrisers Leeds Women |
| 31 | August 12 | 4:00 PM | Welsh Fire Women vs London Spirit Women |
| 32 | August 12 | 7:30 PM | Birmingham Phoenix Women vs MI London Women |
| Eliminator | August 14 | 6:45 PM | 2nd vs 3rd — TBC |
| Final | August 16 | 6:45 PM | 1st vs Eliminator winner — Lord's |
The format, the points table, and why fantasy players should care about the top of the table
The Hundred's format is straightforward and fantasy-friendly. Each side plays twenty sets of five balls, batting and bowling for ten sets each. The team finishing top of the points table advances directly to the final; second and third play an Eliminator on August 14, with the winner joining the table-topper in the Lord's final on August 16. The Eliminator is a single match, not a two-leg aggregate, which means the table-topper has a real scheduling advantage — one fewer match of wear on the key bowlers and batters.
For fantasy readers that single rule changes how you stack picks across the final week. A team that has already secured top spot will rest bowlers or bat second; a team fighting for the Eliminator will play its strongest XI and chase aggressively. The two-week stretch between Match 25 and Match 32 — the run from August 8 to August 12 — is when fantasy deadlocks start to break. Captain picks on August 11 and 12 carry the highest variance because the table picture is settled but not yet final.
Bonus-point scoring on most fantasy platforms for The Hundred leans on strike rate and economy, not just runs and wickets. That rewards the batters who clear the rope rather than the anchors who bat through, and the bowlers who take early wickets rather than the ones who bowl economically at the death. If your platform runs a separate multiplier or bonus scheme for this tournament, build teams around the boundary-hitters and the new-ball bowlers; the anchors will underperform against expectations.
Two structural rules to keep in mind. First, the Eliminator is single-match and the final is single-match, so fantasy teams built around a single high-ceiling captain pick over the playoff weekend will swing hard in either direction. Second, because the women's and men's competitions share the same window, fantasy platforms sometimes run a single combined mega-contest across both. If that is the case on your platform, captain selection becomes a cross-format decision — picking a men's Hundred captain who plays a 3:30 PM doubleheader is not the same as picking a women's captain who plays the 7:30 PM slot. Read the platform rules before the first match.
Watching from outside India — broadcast details by region
If you are tracking from outside India, the broadcast map is straightforward but worth pinning down before the first match. In the United Kingdom, every match is on Sky Sports with selected matches also on BBC. In the United States and Canada, Willow TV carries the linear feed and Willow App, Willow.tv, and DAZN carry the digital streams. Australian viewers can watch on Fox Cricket and stream on Kayo Sports. New Zealand coverage sits on Sky Sport NZ and Sky Sport Now. Pakistani fans can stream on Tapmad. Caribbean coverage is on ESPN Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa on SuperSport, and the Middle East and North Africa on beIN SPORTS via beIN CONNECT and TOD. Across South-East Asia, Cricbuzz TV and the Cricbuzz app carry the action in territories where the rights allow. There is no global free-to-air option for the women's competition outside India.
What to watch this week, and what to watch next
The opening match on July 21 is the cleanest data point of the tournament: MI London Women versus Sunrisers Leeds Women at The Oval, with Deepti Sharma in the visiting XI and Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh waiting in the Manchester Super Giants squad for the next evening. If MI London win the toss and bat, watch Hayley Matthews and Amelia Kerr against the new ball — they are the two most destructive openers in the league and the most likely captain picks across the first week. If Sunrisers bat first, watch how Kate Cross and Hannah Baker go in the powerplay; the new ball is where most 100-ball innings are won and lost.
By Match 3 on July 23, Mandhana and Ghosh take the field against London Spirit, and that is the first fantasy data point for the Indian contingent. By Match 7 on July 26, Jemimah Rodrigues enters the data set for Southern Brave. Treat the first three games of each Indian player as your sample size — anything before that is preseason and anything after that is data you can bet on. The clearer signal across the first fortnight, the more aggressive you can be with captain rotations in the back half of the schedule.
For IPL Contests readers who already track The Hundred as a secondary calendar alongside the IPL and the Women's Premier League, the most useful follow-up coverage sits with our fantasy strategy notes, including the captain-rotation framework, the differential-picks playbook, and the platform-by-platform bonus comparison. Read more on the Fantasy Strategy Blog at iplcontests.com/blog.html.
Frequently asked questions
Which channel broadcasts The Hundred Women 2026 in India?
Star Sports Network carries every match live in India, with the specific channel alternating between Star Sports 1, 1 HD, 2, and 2 HD depending on the parallel fixture slate.
Is there a free streaming option for The Hundred Women 2026 in India?
Yes. JioHotstar on the app and website streams every match live in India, including both women's and men's fixtures across the four-week window. No paid subscription is required for Indian users.
When does The Hundred Women 2026 start and end?
The tournament opens on Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at The Oval and ends with both the women's and men's finals at Lord's on Sunday, August 16, 2026.
Which Indian players are in The Hundred Women 2026 squads?
Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh play for Manchester Super Giants, Jemimah Rodrigues plays for Southern Brave, and Deepti Sharma plays for Sunrisers Leeds.
What time are the matches in India?
The opener on July 21 starts at 7:15 PM IST. From July 22 onward the regular slots are 3:30 PM IST for the early game of doubleheaders and 7:00–7:30 PM IST for the evening fixture. Playoff matches start at 6:45 PM IST.
How does the knockout stage work?
The team finishing top of the points table after Match 32 qualifies directly for the final. The second- and third-placed teams play an Eliminator on August 14 at 6:45 PM IST, with the winner advancing to the final on August 16 at Lord's.
Editorial note: Coverage details below reflect the official broadcast confirmation at the time of writing on July 21, 2026. Squad lists and the fixture schedule reflect the latest announcements from The Hundred; any last-minute changes will be reflected on the official tournament channels and on the live coverage pages.