The Indian Women’s team will begin their campaign in the ICC Women’s World Cup today with their first match against England.
A final at Lord’s on July 23 will mark the culmination of 31 matches also played at county grounds in Bristol, Derby, Leicester and Taunton. But the seventh-ranked team, which has never beaten the likes of title favourites Australia, England, India and New Zealand, is certainly capable of recording an upset or two in the tournament. “We haven’t played a semi-final of a big tournament as yet so that would be an awesome thing to achieve at this point”, she said.
“Because of the success of those teams the likes of South Africa, India, Pakistan – they don’t want to be left out, they have upped their ante”. We competed against India but there are a few areas where we want to get better.
She said: ‘A lot of us have chose to come off Twitter and use social media a lot more scarcely.
“When it comes to 50 overs, it’s all about a different mindset”. We’re such a sports loving country and we have been looking for a big win for a long time now so it’s unbelievable and the people are very happy. Every single team and a majority of players at the Women’s Cricket World Cup are on Twitter and have already been sharing in real-time from the UK.
However, with India eyeing up their first victory, the challenge won’t start off in easy fashion – particularly with the experience of Mithali Raj, the world’s second highest-capped batter behind Charlotte Edwards.
ICC Women’s World Cup started in 1973, and out of the ten editions, Australia have become champions six times. The two formidable sides in the women’s game locked horns for the final match with Australia having won four league matches and one game being abandoned while England went into the game with four wins and one loss to New Zealand in the league games.
Meanwhile West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor accepted her team needed a different approach compared to the one that served them so well in T20 cricket.
She said: “I’m a bit insane sometimes”.
England will be bolstered by the return of talented wicket-keeper/batswoman Sarah Taylor following a stress-related illness.