On a burning March afternoon in 2024, Ash Gardner wore a resigned look after her training session for Gujarat Giants in north Bengaluru, waiting for the cricket season to end.

Gardner may not have taken up the team captaincy by then, but she was one of the vital cogs in a side that was struggling to buy a win. Named Australia's Women Cricketer of the Year in two of the previous three seasons, she had firmly established herself as one of the world's premier all-rounders. But during that WPL campaign, she struggled. In eight matches, she scored only 120 runs and picked up seven wickets. Her team, by then, had lost all eight league games and eventually finished with the wooden spoon.

It was an unusual sight: an athlete who is world conquering and part of a national team that has almost forgotten what defeats are like, but waiting to go home and forget this one-off season-ending tournament.

That WPL edition was indeed an anomaly in Gardner's career. She regained her mojo; maybe not touching the peaks that she once did, but continuing to be a threat with both bat and ball, and finding a way back to see what victories are like.

This time, however, the question isn't about her form but Australia's status. Gardner isn't entering this World Cup final as the reigning champion in either white-ball format. But even without a world title to defend, she exuded confidence on the eve of the 2026 T20 World Cup final.

"We've played some really good cricket so far, and different people have stood up at different times. So it's always a nice thing to take some momentum going into a final and then hopefully, no doubt, in front of a packed-out Lord's... we're going to be doing all of our homework before that game and making sure that we're really confident going forward."

Australia's dominance is such that they've rarely found themselves looking for major momentum; for the longest time, it has simply been about the minor fixes. Gardner, too, took some time to make an impact, but has found her rhythm as the tournament has progressed, scoring 53* and 35* with the bat in the last two games, and a spell of 2/13 in the semifinal against West Indies.

"Cricket's such a funny one," Gardner confesses. "It's a very humbling sport at times, but when you're trying to ride that confidence just to really utilize it, it's almost like... you make it at times. Cricket's such a unique game where, you know, you can feel like you're hitting the ball well but then you make no runs. It's trying to take out the positives that you can.

"For me, I've got my game plan that I want to try and stick to, and it's making sure that I just keep doing that and keeping both sides of my game really simple, working with my partner down the other end - the conversations that we were having together."

"I feel like in tournament play, sometimes you're always searching for that consistency and I feel like I probably haven't had the impact that I would have liked, especially with the ball. I feel like I've probably just been a little bit inconsistent and I guess when Soph's thrown me the ball, I probably haven't played the role that she's probably wanted for me."

Against West Indies, she first stemmed the flow of runs when the opposition had made a brisk start. And then, struck twice in an over, to trigger their collapse.

"It was probably more of a mindset thing," she said when explaining what changed in her game over the last two matches. "I feel like I just tried to make my game really simple, focus on looking at the stumps when I was bowling. That sounds really silly, but I feel like when I was narrowing my focus, I guess I could execute a little bit better and I felt like (against West Indies) we knew that keeping the stumps in play for a long period of time, just with the variability in the bounce really helped. So making sure that we're just really simple in the way that we operate, focusing on ourselves and then being able to adjust if needed."

Having not won the last two white-ball World Cups might not have changed one theory about this Australian team: that they are always the favourites to win the big tournaments. It's a tag that the players have also embraced without a fuss.

"I feel like the media always have this expectation that Australia should do well and I guess that's the expectation from external people," Gardner said. "We have the belief that we are the best team and I guess having that belief is just part of it. It's part of the puzzle and it's just sometimes you forget about that stuff. We haven't had the campaigns that we would have liked in the past but I guess forgetting about that and just really being in the here and now is something that we've really tried to work on.

"We've done a lot of work off the field as a team and had a lot of buy-in for that as well. So I feel like when the unit's in a really good place, everyone's enjoying themselves, which I think is one of the most important things as well is making sure that people are having fun because ultimately the result will happen. Whatever happens, someone's got to lose, someone's got to win so it's making sure that you're enjoying the process along the way.

"Not having any trophies in the cabinet at the moment, it has probably been frustrating over the last 18 months. But with where the team's at at the moment, I don't think we've been playing as good cricket in a long time, so it's really pleasing going forward that yeah we can take the confidence out of what we've done and then hopefully win another trophy on Sunday."

The challengers waiting for them are England, another side that hasn't quite been pushed in this tournament, and have reached the final without dropping a point. They will have the crowd support, and a bit of history - of winning every single Women's World Cup played at home.

Gardner's own journey has somewhat mirrored Australia's: a rare setback, a gradual return to form, and now one match to reclaim the crown.

"You have these dreams and these hopes that you see yourself standing on one of the balconies at Lord's lifting up that trophy in front of some fans," she says. "But we have to think about what that is going to look like in terms of the process, and it's really hard to not think too far ahead but making sure that we don't as well because it's a very easy thing to do... to kind of think of the end result. But you've got to think about all the things that you need to do first. Hopefully that's what happens. Bring it on."