The 9th Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup began on Thursday. Team India will begin their campaign in the 10-team tournament from today. India will take on New Zealand from 7:30 p.m. India, the most successful Asian cricket team, does not have a single World Cup title.
India has so far participated in 18 World Cups, including 10 ODI World Cups and 8 T-20 World Cups. The team also reached the knockout stage 9 times, but sometimes lack of experience and sometimes the pressure of big matches stood in India’s way. The team had to face defeat 6 times in the semi-finals and 3 times in the final. India was unable to win even a single knockout match in the T-20 World Cup.
In 10 points from the story, you will understand how India’s journey has been so far in women’s cricket.
1. Women’s Cricket Association established after the first World Cup
The Women’s Cricket World Cup started in 1973 itself, ICC organized an ODI tournament in England. At that time, due to the absence of a women’s cricket board in India, the country did not send its team to the World Cup. After the World Cup, the Women’s Cricket Association (WCAI) was established in the country, after which the team played its first international match in the form of a Test in 1976.
The Bihar Chief Minister honored the Indian women’s cricket team after they recorded their first Test victory in Patna against West Indies in 1976.
In 1978, India played their first ODI match against England directly in the World Cup. The tournament was held in India, but the Indian women’s performance was very poor. In the 4-team tournament, the team placed fourth after losing all three matches. In 1982, the team won 4 matches, but this time, thanks to 8 defeats, they got fourth place in the 5-team tournament. The team did not participate in 1988 due to internal conflicts within the board of directors.
2. Mithali-Jhulan strengthened the team
In 1993, the Indian team performed slightly better and finished fourth out of 8 teams. The 1997 World Cup was held only in India. Under the leadership of Pramila Bhatt, the Indian team won the quarter-finals and qualified for the semi-finals, but lost to Australia.
In 1999, Mithali Raj made her debut for India at the age of just 16, after 3 years fast bowler Jhulan Goswami also made her debut. Both of them took on the responsibility of completely changing Indian cricket over the next 20 years. India again reached the semi-finals of the 2000 World Cup, but this time lost to champions New Zealand.
In 2005, Indian women again made a comeback and defeated New Zealand in the semi-final and qualified for the final. The team had to face defeat against Australia in the final, but it was from there that the foundation for change in Indian women’s cricket was laid.
3. Beat Australia by 2 KOs The Harmanpreet era has begun
At the 2009 World Cup, after the group stage, there was also a Super-6 stage. The Indian team defeated Australia in Super-6 and finished in the third position. Then the final took place between the top 2 teams. In 2013 and 2022, the team was unable to advance to the round of 16.
The tournament held in England in 2017 was the best ODI World Cup in India. The team won 5 matches in the group stage and advanced to the semi-finals. Against Australia, Harmanpreet Kaur played an innings of 171 runs off 115 balls and led India to victory by 36 runs.
The Indian team was also in a strong position in the final against England. Chasing the target of 229 runs, India’s score at one point was 191/3 in 42 overs. Only 38 runs were needed from 48 balls, but the pressure of the World Cup final snatched victory for India. The team lost their remaining 7 wickets by scoring 28 runs and lost the golden opportunity to win the World Cup by just 9 runs. The pain of this defeat was greater than the defeat suffered by the men’s team against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final of the same year.
4. Started T-20 World Cup, lost 2 semi-finals in 5 events.
The T-20 World Cup also started in women’s cricket from 2009. India made it to the semi-finals of the first two tests, but lost to New Zealand and Australia. In 2012, 2014 and 2016, the team aspired to play in the knockout stage.
Coming close to the trophy during the 2017 ODI World Cup inspired the young generation of the country to play cricket. It is thanks to this that players like Jemimah Rodriguez and Shefali Verma entered the team. Harmanpreet and Smriti Mandhana had proven themselves as early as 2017. Therefore, Harman was also named captain for the 2018 T-20 World Cup.
Under Harman’s leadership, India Women again reached the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup after 8 years, but lost the semi-finals to England. The team went further again in 2020 and reached the final, but this time lost to Australia. This was India’s first final in the T-20 World Cup.
In the T-20 World Cup 2023, India faced Australia in the semi-final. Ahead of the target of 173 runs, the team at one point scored 133 runs after losing 4 wickets. Here only 40 runs were needed off 33 balls, Harmanpreet was ready. She tried to make 2 runs on the next ball, but before she reached the crease, her bat got stuck and she was run out. Due to poor finishing, India missed the World Cup final by a margin of 5 points.
5. Australia caused the most problems
The Indian team has participated in the ODI and T-20 World Cup 18 times from 1978 to 2023. The team has reached the knockout stage 9 times, of which they lost 6 times in the semi-final and 3 times in the final. Australia have lost the maximum 5 matches, while New Zealand and England have lost 2-2 times. The team has only won 3 knockout matches so far, in which they beat South Africa, New Zealand and Australia 1-1.
Australia had also snatched India’s dream of winning the gold medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Women’s cricket was included for the first time in the Commonwealth Games. India defeated England by 4 runs in the semi-final and qualified for the final. But Australia once again created problems and beat India by 9 runs, preventing them from becoming champions of the world tournament.
India women’s team was defeated by Australia in maximum 5 knockout matches.
6. Lost 5 knockout matches in 7 years
As of 2017, the Indian women’s team joined the top 3 with Australia and England. This happened for the first time in 40 years. India has since participated in 7 tournaments and qualified to the round of 16 out of 6. However, due to the pressure of the tournament, the team had to face 5 defeats, including 3 major finals. The team also won 2 matches, but both were semi-finals.
7. India has won 7 of the 9 most successful Asia Cup titles.
So far, Indian women have failed to win the World Cup and global tournaments, but India has the best team at the Asian level. In the 4th ODI Asia Cup held so far, India has not lost a single match and the team has become champions every time.
India also won 3 out of 5 titles in the T-20 Asia Cup, the team lost only 21 out of 25 matches, including 2 finals against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The team had to face defeat against Sri Lanka in July this year.
8. If you want to win the World Cup, you will have to beat Australia.
Australia has the maximum number of 13 titles in the ODI and T-20 World Cups. After them, England have won 5 titles, while West Indies and New Zealand own the remaining 2 titles. The West Indies and New Zealand teams could only become champions by beating England and Australia. England also only become champions by beating Australia in the knockout stage. This means that if India Women are to win the title, they will have to defeat Australia and England simultaneously.
9. India can win their first trophy with the young team and WPL experience
Like the IPL, it took a long time for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) to start in India. It could start only last year, in 2023. Both times, the team led by the Indian captain enjoyed success, but the biggest advantage of the tournament came to India in the form of young players. Players like Shreyanka Patil, Saika Ishaq, Sajivana Sajna and Asha Shobhana met in this tournament. Among them, 3 also made the World Cup squad.
The team includes experienced players like Mandhana, Harmanpreet, Jemima and Deepti along with young players like Shreyanka, Shefali, Richa Ghosh and Pooja Vastrakar. India beat England and Australia in the T20 series last year. Tournaments like the WPL have also taught Indian players how to handle pressure, so the team is also a big contender for the championship title.
The Women’s Premier League has given India a very important all-rounder in the form of Shreyanka Patil.
10. Challenge for India to become champions from here in Group of Death
India now enters the T20 World Cup for the 9th time with a young team and painful memories of past defeats. Australia and New Zealand have beaten India the most times in knockouts in Group A. The same group also includes their arch-rivals Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who beat them in the final of the Asian Cup this year. India faces a big challenge to come out of this group of death and become champions.
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