Women’s Cricket in 2021: What has changed and what hasn’t yet?
2021 has been quite a great year for Women’s cricket. It witnessed an extraordinary display of talent accompanied by some record-breaking performances. The year brought many young cricketers to the fore who exuded their flair and announced their arrival on the big stage.
With the plethora of special moments and achievements, it will be fair to say that the women marched the drum of their repertoire this year too. If one has to throw light on the certain changes this year brought in then the fact that Indian women played the longest format earlier this year probably tops the list.
India’s rise
The Indian women’s cricket team played the red ball game after seven years. It brought back the excitement and thrill to the game when two of the best sides locked horns with each other in the longest format. Followed by that, the Mithali Raj-led side played the one-off pink ball Test against Australia which resulted in a draw.
It is a no-brainer that the game constantly evolves. Over the course of time, one has witnessed that the demands of the women’s game have also soared high. When it comes to the 50 over format in women’s game, a total of around 250 runs was considered as a competitive total. But now the teams have been punching above their weights to reach the 300 mark.
Only three batters have a strike rate over 130 in women’s T20Is in 2021, with two India players, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, featuring in the list. pic.twitter.com/ja5uRhlFBk
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) December 14, 2021
The game now is no longer linked only to the men. The power hitters that have emerged into the scene have turned the tables around. A certain Shafali Verma showing her heroics not only in the white ball games but the Tests as well is the evidence of this fact. Deandra Dottin got back to scoring runs making a stunning comeback.
She finished 2021 as the third-highest WODI run-scorer wherein she smashed 460 runs at 38.33 and also as the most run-getter (84) from the boundaries for the year. The furthermore participation of the players in the different T20 leagues is the other major thing that this year brought to the limelight. The WBBL and The Hundred tournaments not only brought some thrilling games to the fore but also provided a platform for the younger talents to showcase their basket of skills.
Lack of exposure
However, the certain thing that required to be paid attention to was the comparative lack of cricket played by some countries like of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. As the proceedings had paused owing to the pandemic, it created a huge gap between matches, though a few countries played a considerable amount of games, some were left with less competitive cricket.
There have been talks on the Women’s IPL for a long time now. But to this year there hasn’t been any remarkable progress seen on the same. But with the rise of players in the competitive leagues across the world, a full-fledged women’s IPL may be on cards soon.
