Since turning into runners-up within the 2017 ODI World Cup in England, girls’s cricket in India has come a good distance, profitable the Asia Cup and bagging the maiden U19 Women’s T20 World Cup Trophy. However, there’s nonetheless extra to be achieved to develop girls’s cricket within the nation. The upcoming Women’s Premier League (WPL), beginning on March 4, is anticipated to be one other landmark second within the development of girls’s cricket.
Mithali Raj needs India to step up in all departments within the knockout conflict on Thursday _#AUSvIND | #T20WorldCup | #TurnItUp pic.twitter.com/f0BAoFoEUT
— ICC (@ICC) February 22, 2023
“All players understand the importance of having two- and three-dimensional players now. Players with only one side to their game are not as desired in today’s game. Only players with exceptional talent like Meg Lanning, Smriti Mandhana and a few others who are extraordinary batters can thrive or a Darcie Brown or Shabnim Ismail who can clock 120 plus. Everyone else has developed their skillset and added to their overall game.”
“For example, we’ve seen how England’s Sophie Ecclestone has developed her skills with the bat in the death overs, with her cameo against India proving decisive come the end. Grace Harris can contribute with the ball and take wickets for Australia, so I think establishing yourself as an all-rounder, or someone with multiple skills, is the way forward for women’s cricket,” she wrote.
Former India captain and legendary batter Mithali Raj, in her column for the International Cricket Council (ICC), believes that multi-dimensional gamers and extra quick bowlers are wanted to additional develop girls’s cricket. Mithali believes that gamers who’re distinctive batters, like Meg Lanning and Smriti Mandhana, or bowlers who can clock 120 plus, like Darcie Brown or Shabnim Ismail, can thrive. However, for everybody else, creating a spread of abilities is important.
India has a number of multi-skilled gamers, together with captain Harmanpreet Kaur, opener Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, and Pooja Vastrakar. The U19 Women’s T20 World Cup-winning staff additionally had a number of multi-skilled gamers, together with Gongadi Trisha, Sonam Yadav, Mannat Kashyap, and Archana Devi. However, Mithali thinks that India must groom extra fast-bowling all-rounders, like Titas Sadhu, Hurley Gala, and Amanjot Kaur, to enhance Vastrakar, who’s a uncommon fast-bowling all-rounder within the Indian girls’s cricket set-up.
“One of the themes of the tournament has been the rise of fast bowlers, who have really dominated and helped their teams to victory, which is not usually the case with the T20 format where you see batters scoring big fifties and hundreds,” added Mithali.
Mithali additionally believes that India must develop its fast-bowling division, which could possibly be a dominant power sooner or later. In the current Women’s T20 World Cup, South Africa’s quick bowlers, together with tearaway Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Nadine de Klerk, and Marizanne Kapp, took 22% of all of the wickets by tempo bowlers. India’s pace-bowling assault took solely 12 wickets within the event.
To develop an even bigger pool of quick bowlers, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru must get their methods and planning proper, and India must have a set teaching workers. The assume tank must take cues from Mithali’s options if India hopes to shine within the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup in India.
