Mumbai: It took a little bit little bit of nudging after which India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana picked out their contest in opposition to holders Australia because the one that may get her staff really going within the Girls’s ODI World Cup to be performed in India and Sri Lanka from September 30 to November 2.
The nod from captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who was seated subsequent to her within the occasion held right here on Monday to mark the 50-day countdown to the event, confirmed how centered the co-hosts already are. Nobody is aware of the stage higher than Kaur and what it’s to tame the formidable Australia, having performed one of many nice ICC ODI World Cup knocks – a swashbuckling 171 in 2017 that helped India trounce Meg Lanning’s staff within the semi-final.
In some ways, India’s ladies in blue search to attract inspiration from England’s Lionesses – their soccer staff that beat serial winners Germany in Euro 2022 in entrance of a capability dwelling crowd at Wembley. It marked an finish to England’s many years of watch for a significant soccer trophy – males or ladies – to come back dwelling.
Cricket in India is commercially simply as booming as soccer in England. Whereas the Indian males’s staff holds a powerful report, having received 4 World Cups, the ladies are but to win silverware. The Australian ladies’s cricket staff are world beaters. The Aussies will come to India-Sri Lanka – Colombo hosts Pakistan’s matches within the competitors – as winners of three of the final 5 WCs, and seven-time winners within the 12 ODI editions performed to date.
“I nonetheless do not forget that knock (in opposition to Australia) – it was very particular. So much modified for me personally after that,” Kaur mentioned in a panel dialogue. “On the time, I didn’t absolutely realise what had occurred, however after we returned to India after shedding the ultimate (to England), the variety of folks ready and cheering us was really exceptional.”
Amongst these cheering for Kaur and the Indian staff on arrival on the Mumbai airport was Jemimah Rodrigues, then an aspiring India cricketer. “I used to be 16-and-a-half years previous, holding an India flag to welcome our staff. They had been very drained, as a result of they got here so shut and but it (trophy) remained to date. I might see (from outdoors), the entire bunch of gamers went again in after seeing the large crowd as a result of they weren’t ready for thus many individuals,” Rodrigues mentioned.
Mandhana mentioned the primary thought that got here to her thoughts was “they’d all hit us as a result of we couldn’t win the World Cup.”
Rodrigues, now a longtime middle-order batter within the nationwide staff, felt the airport arrival space filled with followers at 5.30 am to obtain a nationwide staff that had misplaced a hard-fought ultimate eight years in the past was the turning level within the India ladies’s cricket story. It’s now on Kaur-led India to place up a robust present, which might make the 2025 World Cup a game-changer.
Improved professionalism because of the Girls’s Premier League, rising recognition mirrored in packed homes for bilateral matches in venues like Mumbai and Bengaluru and a nationwide staff sharpening tough edges like in fielding all promise a robust present.
India have had a stellar run in ODIs this yr with snug wins over Eire, West Indies, a tri-series overcome South Africa and Sri Lanka, and just lately an away sequence win over England. In 21-year-old Kranti Goud India now has a quick bowler of high quality. Goud’s six-wicket haul in England was hailed by Kaur as an important achievement. “We’ve been dying for a quick bowler such as you,” she had mentioned.
The eight-team ladies’s event is being performed in the identical format because the 2023 males’s ODI World Cup the place a spherical robin stage is adopted by the semis and ultimate. With India on the street for all dwelling venues – Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam, Indore and Guwahati – in the event that they do get on a roll, they’re positive to spice up assist for themselves and in flip the standing for girls’s cricket.
“I hope we’ll give our 100% and attempt to break that ultimate barrier that we’ve all been ready for,” Kaur mentioned. “The form of cricket we’ve performed during the last couple of years provides us quite a lot of confidence.”
ICC chairman, Jay Shah, mentioned: “The return of the event to India comes at a defining second for the ladies’s recreation, setting the stage for a really world-class event that may additional elevate the game’s international stature,” mentioned ICC chairman Jay Shah.
