WWT20 | India can give Australia a run for their money, believes Mithali Raj
Former India captain Mithali Raj has backed the current team to give Australia a run for their money in the opening match of the T20 World Cup in Sydney on Friday. The former felt female stars have emerged as role models which has been the “biggest change” in women’s cricket’s journey.
Despite stuttering on a couple of occasions in the recent triangular, Australia have entered the tournament as strong favourites to lift the title yet again. They have become the most successful team in women's cricket of all time, having won six ODI World Cups and four T20 World Cups till date and are ahead in the Women's Ashes with six victories till date. However, the former skipper believes Harmanpreet Kaur's India represents a team that's vastly evolved over the previous decade into genuine world-beaters, with a string of successful results in recent times to boast of.
"Australia go in as favourites, but India will be no pushover, they have some very talented players and I think it will be a very close, high-scoring game. In the T20 format, you can't really predict a winner because it all depends on how the main players perform on that particular day," said Mithali in her column for the International Cricket Council website as quoted by Time of India.
The T20 world cup has been predicted to be the most interesting and competatitive event as the lower-ranked teams have all shown glimpses of brilliance momentarily. The former skipper has also mentioned that the gap between the top teams like Australia, India and England and those below in women's cricket like Sri Lanka and Pakistan is reducing day by day.
"The gap between the top and bottom teams is closing. You can't go by the practice matches alone, but it does give you a rough indication of how the tournament could play out. Take Sri Lanka beating England for example - there is a possibility that could happen again," she said.
Female stars have emerged as role models has been the “biggest change” in women’s cricket’s journey from near-anonymity to stardom, felt Mithali, who grew up idolising her male counterparts. When Mithali started out in 1999, women’s cricket was almost an unknown entity, a far cry from what it is on the eve of the T20 World Cup in Australia where the opening contest between India and the hosts is expected to witness sellout crowds.
“Back in my day, we only had male players as inspiration because that’s all we used to see on the television. Today a young girl can have a role model in the form of a female cricketer and I think that’s the biggest change I have seen,” Mithali wrote.