India is currently ranked fourth in the ICC Women’s ODI Rankings and third in the T20I Rankings.
There is no doubt that a lot has changed in the last decade or so.
Former India Cricketer Snehal Pradhan, who played 6 ODIs and 4 T20Is for India from 2008 to 2011 and is currently on the commentary panel for the Ashes broadcast in India, was a guest on The Times of India’s sports podcast. sportscast Recently and talked about how much things have changed since his playing days.
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“Let me give you an example that, the last series that I played in 2011, I hardly have any footage from that series because I think there was only one match which was shown on TV and there also we had to use our pen drives. Had to take the video in. Analyst to make sure we got some footage of our game and all of a sudden here we are where we were seeing 8 girls playing in WBBL and they set the tournament on fire all over. Harmanpreet Kaur was the player of the tournament. Whatever WC action is coming soon it will also be widely available. So, a lot has changed, especially because of 2017 WC and the credit should really go to the girls because until they The attention-grabbing performances don’t – then the audience suddenly wakes up and says – oh there’s an amazing product called Women’s Cricket which is worth watching. And again and again they have given the kind of performances that we have seen over the years So full credit to him, full credit to the fact that the Election Commission system is changing and it has It’s really helped women’s cricket’s visibility – that’s been the biggest development.” Snehal said on TOI Sportscast.
As Snehal said, in the last edition of Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), 8 Indian players participated and represented different franchises. The likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav and Jemima Rodrigues showed that the world is paying attention to Indian women’s cricket talent. Franchisees in Australia and other countries are eager to sign Indian players, where they get a chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world. This is what IPL does for men.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who returned to the WBBL after a hiatus of two years, having previously played for the Sydney Thunder franchise, was the player of the tournament for the 2021 edition of the WBBL, scoring 399 runs in 11 innings and taking 15 wickets for Melbourne. Hypocrite. He also hit the most number of sixes in the tournament – 18.
What was certainly a major turning point for Indian women’s cricket was the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, where India Women finished as runners-up, losing by just 9 runs to England Women in the final.
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So what are the different ways scouts and talent spotters focus on the Indian players they want to target for different franchises?
“There are two things – one is that they will be following world cricket – they will be watching the scores as far as possible. I think now we are in an era where everything played by India’s women Matches are covered, televised, if not on TV, but the internet via live streaming has certainly improved visibility. There are also the players involved in the matches and how much impact they have against each other. For example, you talk about Harmanpreet Kaur and the fact that she played for Sydney Thunder in WBBL (First WBBL contract – 2016-17 to 2018-19) because she has played for Sydney Thunder as some Australians. Had a very strong impact on the players. So they would go back to their coaches and say – you know what, I think this player can really make a difference. Take for example Chamari Atapattu from Sri Lanka, who really enjoys batting against australia and whenever it comes against australia she gives her best and it is something like Which gets his WBBL contract more than anything, so doing well against the likes of Australia or England and then having those players go to their franchise and call their coach and say – you know I guess That this player might actually fit into our lineup. That’s the best way for these players to move around,” Snehal added on TOI Sportscast.
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Snehal also talked about the confidence that is out of the young cricketers these days. Shafali Verma has been compared to someone like Virender Sehwag, thanks to her attacking style of play. But the 17-year-old had said in an interview to the Times of India earlier this year that although such comparisons give her a lot of confidence, she wants to be recognized by her name and not someone else’s clone. . She would like to learn from the legends but not imitate them.
“It is an awareness that has been created in the environment in which they are running. Shafali made her debut at the age of 15, now she is 17, so she has spent a few years in the Indian team. Where did she learn from? She is learning someone like Mithali Raj. In the 2017 World Cup when Mithali Raj was asked – Who is your favorite male cricketer, she asked – Would you ask this question to men? And this is how Shafalia Verma learned We’re getting to spend time in the dressing room with these guys. Because they’re looking at older players and players who have been setting that standard for a long time – that we want our own identity. want to know who we are and, even if that comparison is great, you know, even if you compare her to Mithali Raj, who is a female cricketer, not a male cricketer and this There is a big comparison, yet the younger generation would like to keep their mark. And we see it in the men’s cricket and partly because of so many matches that they play before they came into the national team. Go through the rigors of something like PL. And the exposure they are getting in tournaments like WBBL with women is really going to shape them as people very fast.”
Listen full episodes of Sportscast with Snehal Pradhan Here,
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