Led by Mithali Raj, India Women’s team are set to begin their ICC Women’s World Cup, 2017 campaign in England. They will be taking on the hosts in their first encounter in Bristol on Saturday, June 24th.
After a practice camp in Mumbai, the squad has played a practice against England Women and two warm-up matches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka respectively. They had arrived in the country early to train and familiarise themselves to the conditions. With experienced campaigners like the captain herself and fast bowler Jhulan Goswami in their side, India Women are geared up for the challenge.
Speaking ahead of the opening game of the tournament Mithali, who will be appearing in her fifth ICC WWC was quoted as saying by the ICC website, “This will be my last one-day World Cup. In all practicality, I won’t be a part of the squad in four years. I still have a couple of years in international cricket,” she said.
The stylish Indian batter is looking forward to expressing herself on the field. “Usually people say it’s your last World Cup, so you should end on a high. I don’t believe in that. It’s an opportunity for me to be myself, express myself, and enjoy the kind of experience the World Cup carries. I probably won’t be a part of it in the next edition. I will try to enjoy it as much as I can and carry a lot of memories – good or bad, it doesn’t matter to me,” she added.
Speaking about the first encounter, Mithali’s opposite number, England captain, Heather Knight was quoted as saying by the ICC website, “There is bound to be pressure. It’s going to be one of the most visible World Cups. Pressure comes with that, but as a team we try and embrace that.”
“There is bound to be nerves. We are all human at the end of the day. How we deal with that, and use the pressure to our advantage - that’s what you train for. You want to play in front of people watching you, you want that pressure, and you want to perform under pressure. So, as a side we are trying to go and relish it,” Knight mentioned.
Mark Robinson, England’s head coach, was quoted as saying, “It’s a good wicket with a tinge of green. It’s interesting. We don’t play here. We don’t go to these venues regularly, so not that we know of them. From my county experience, it looks a good wicket. All the competition wants a good wicket. We all want sunshine and great wickets. Derby will try the hardest to give us that. May the best team win,” he added.
India: Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Punam Raut, Deepti Sharma, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Ekta Bisht, Sushma Verma, Mansi Joshi, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Nuzhat Parveen, Smriti Mandhana
England: Heather Knight (Captain), Tammy Beaumont, Sarah Taylor (wk), Katherine Brunt, Georgia Elwiss, Jenny Gunn, Alex Hartley, Danielle Hazell, Beth Langston, Laura Marsh, Natalie Sciver, Anya Shrubsole, Fran Wilson, Danielle Wyatt, Laura Winfield.
