The Indian women’s cricket team is firmly grounded ahead of their opening game against Bangladesh in the ICC Women’s Twenty20 despite having the momentum and performances on their side.
If anything goes by their recent performance the hosts are favourites to win their opening game against Bangladesh as their spirits are high since their morale boosting win against Australia and Sri Lanka.
Indian skipper Mithali Raj doesn’t want to take anything for granted as she is well aware that her opponents are going strength to strength with passing days through displaying some spirited cricket.
In their first match against Sri Lanka, despite scoring only 95 runs, Bangladesh gave the opponents quite a scare by picking up five wickets before Shashikala Siriwardene batted them out of the contest.
While against Ireland they were at their very best, restricting them to 73 for 9 before chasing down the target by losing just two wickets and 45 balls to spare.
‘We haven’t played Bangladesh and Pakistan for two years now, since the last World T20 in Bangladesh, and two years is a long gap in international cricket,’ said Mithali.
‘Having said that, our preparation has been good, so we will work to our strengths,’ she said.
Mithali tried to reduce the pressure off high expectations by taking one game at a time when she was asked whether she is aiming the maiden ICC Twenty20 World Cup for her country.
‘We’re not thinking about playing the finals or winning the World Cup,’ said Mithali.
‘Right now our focus is more on taking one game at a time. That reduces the pressure of aiming too high.’
The Indian dominance in the World Cup crept up as they defeated Australia, who are eying to clinch their fourth successive ICC World Twenty20 championship, to make them the hot favourites in the championship.
‘We’ve got a couple of series before the World Cup and all the girls are looking in great form, especially the batting unit and the bowlers.
‘It’s been a good platform before the World Cup. The team looks very rounded and compact,’ she added.
India had an easy run in the warm-ups and according to the Mithali it would have been better if they had got some tougher opponents.
‘Ideally, I would like to play New Zealand or Australia in one of the practice matches.
‘Although our batting line-up has not been really tested in this format the girls are very confident and I hope, as a captain, that whoever gets an opportunity in the middle makes the most of it,’ said the skipper.
-With New Age input
