India is more than capable of winning Women’s World Cup: Mithali Raj
The ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 gets underway on March four with hosts New Zealand facing off against the West Indies at the Bay Oval. India will kick off their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on March six. Veteran batter Mithali Raj would be leading the Indian team in the upcoming quadrennial event. Under Raj, Indian eves have made it to the finals twice in the 2005 and 2017 editions respectively.
Meanwhile, the legendary batter is confident that the Women In Blue are more than capable enough to lift the coveted prize for the very first time after agonizingly falling short in the previous edition in England. India had knocked the defending champions and favorites Australia out in the semis and were on course to register a famous win in the summit clash at Lord’s. However, a middle-order collapse meant that England emerged victorious by nine runs.
It is now just a case of doing it: Mithali Raj
“We have shown that we are more than capable of winning the trophy, it is now just a case of doing it and the impact of doing so would be incredible. I can only imagine what its effect would be,” Mithali Raj said in her column for ICC.
“I clearly remember the emotions from the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017, having come so close to winning. The match against England was played in a packed Lord’s stadium and to miss out on that chance is something that will rankle forever,” she added.
The upcoming Women’s World Cup 2022 is expected to be both Mithali and veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami’s swansong and they would be hoping to sign off on a hight with a World Cup winner’s medal.
The ICC Women’s World Cup was originally scheduled to be held in 2021 but, was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The marquee event is to be played from 4th March to 3rd April 2022. It is to be an eight-team tournament with 31 matches to be played in total. England won the last edition in 2017 while Australia leads as being crowned the maximum number of times, with six trophies to their name.
