: Indian womens cricket needs multi-skilled players, more pace bowlers: Mithali Raj #IndiaNEWS #Sports New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Womens cricket in India has made huge strides ever since its breakout

@IndiaNEWS

Posted in: #IndiaNEWS #Sports

Indian womens cricket needs multi-skilled players, more pace bowlers: Mithali Raj #IndiaNEWS #Sports
New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Womens cricket in India has made huge strides ever since its breakout moment came as being runners-up in the 2017 ODI World Cup in England. Since then, India won Asia Cup, became runners-up of 2020 Womens T20 World Cup, were semi-finalists in 2018 and 2023 Womens T20 World Cups and also bagged maiden U19 Womens T20 World Cup Trophy earlier in the year.
The question now arises is, what more needs to be done to further the development of womens cricket in the country? The inaugural edition of Womens Premier League (WPL) is starting from March 4 and it promises to be another watershed moment in upping the growth of womens cricket in the country.
In her column for the International Cricket Council (ICC), former India captain and legendary batter Mithali Raj pointed towards two things which nations would need to up their growth in womens cricket: multi-dimensional players and more fast bowlers.
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 todays 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, weve seen how Englands 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 womens cricket, she wrote.
In the Indian team, there are multi-skilled players like captain Harmanpreet Kaur, opener Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, and Pooja Vastrakar among others. From the batch of U19 Womens T20 World Cup winning team, there were multi-skilled players like Gongadi Trisha, Sonam Yadav, Mannat Kashyap and Archana Devi.
With Vastrakar being a rare fast-bowling all-rounder in Indian womens cricket set-up, someone like Titas Sadhu or Hurley Gala can be groomed for that position along with Amanjot Kaur, who gave an excellent impression of her skills during the womens T20I tri-series.
Then comes the fast-bowling department, which Mithali thinks could be a dominant force in future. In the T20 World Cup, South Africas fast bowlers, comprising tearaway Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Nadine de Klerk and Marizanne Kapp, have taken 22 per cent of all the wickets by pace bowlers (23 out of 104 wickets) in the tournament.
In India, apart from Pooja, Renuka Thakur, Shikha Pandey and Anjali Sarvani were present in the Womens T20 World Cup squad, with Meghna Singh in the reserves.

Intraday stocks under 50 NSE India Twitter of India

Vote Up Vote Down

Login to post a comment!