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ICC Women’s World Cup captains day: Harmanpreet Kaur, Alyssa Healy take centerstage; four captains in Bengaluru and four in Colombo | Cricket News

Venkata Krishna BBy No Comments6 Mins Read
Women


The pre-tournament media conference with the captains of the ICC Women’s World Cup in many ways summed up the new normal in world cricket. The men’s Asia Cup had already followed the hybrid model owing to the tensions between India and Pakistan. And now two years later, it’s ICC’s turn for the women’s ODI World Cup hosted by India, where 10 fixtures – including all seven involving Pakistan – will be played in Sri Lanka. On Friday, at the event that set the ball rolling for the tournament beginning September 30, four captains lined up in Bengaluru, while four joined online from Colombo.

That line-up too had a story to tell. The four in Bengaluru happened to be Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophie Devine and Alyssa Healy – leaders of India, England, New Zealand and Australia – which are the four teams that are expected to make the semi-finals. Across the Palk Strait were Laura Wolvaardt, Chamari Athapathuthu, Fatima Sana and Nigar Sultana, where, apart from the ambitious Proteas captain, the rest seemed to be aware of the magnitude of the challenge that lies ahead of them.

In Bengaluru, the attention was firmly on two captains – Harmanpreet and Healy; one who wants to make history and one who wants to stretch the era of dominance.

For the next month or so, as India enters a festive period, Harmanpreet & Co have a chance to turn it into a carnival. Since reaching the final of the 2017 edition, India have had their near misses and are still searching for their first senior global title; a World Cup on home soil is perhaps the final star that had to align in the axis for everything to come good. “I think leading your country is always a very special moment for any player, but leading your country in the ODI World Cup, that is even more special to me,” Harmanpreet said. “And on top of that, a home World Cup is even more special. So I mean, everything together is very exciting and a special moment for me. I just want to go there, enjoy, and play my best cricket. That’s what I’ve been telling myself and my team,” she added.

Despite making rapid strides in the last decade or so, when it comes to ICC events, India have often struggled to handle the burden of expectations. Twice in title clashes, they seemed overawed by the occasion. Harmanpreet was rightly reminded about it. “Well, no doubt, we have been in these situations many times. We have been playing good cricket and it’s about going with good confidence and doing things the way our team is expecting from ourselves. I have mentioned this many times, we are only talking about enjoying this moment. Rather than just thinking what happened in the past, we have learned a lot from our mistakes. And hopefully this time, we will cross this line by giving our best to and be on the other side,” she said.

Unfamiliar venues

There are other hidden challenges that are confronting India. While they have an all-round team to challenge the might of Australia in home conditions, the venues – Guwahati, Visakhapatnam, Indore – bring a bit of unfamiliarity to their ranks, with the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai being the lone familiar territory in home conditions. “The wickets are going to be flat. And we have watched so much cricket on TV when other teams were playing there. Especially when the men were playing there, we can take a lot of takeaways from them. We will get a few practice sessions to get used to the conditions and pitches. It’s about being in good space rather than just thinking about too many things. Even though this World Cup is in India, we are not very familiar with the stadiums we are going to play. But we have enough data to see the conditions and pitches and just be there and enjoy our cricket,” the 36-year-old said.

Australia, the defending champions and record 7-time winners of the title, undoubtedly start as favourites. After having faced some of the Indian women in the A series Down Under in the recent months, last week, Healy’s side defeated the hosts 2-1 in a three-match ODI series during which they even posted 413 at Kotla in the decider. It is hard to recall an ICC event where Australia didn’t start the tournament as a favourite, but Healy tried to downplay the tag.

“I don’t think it gets any easier. I feel like you have labelled us favourites, so thanks for that. But I don’t necessarily think that’s the case. I think India in their home conditions are going to be really, really tough to beat, along with a couple of captains sitting alongside. So it doesn’t get any easier. I think this ODI World Cup is going to be one of the strongest ones that I have been a part of,” Healy said.

To underline where they stand – head and shoulders above the rest – Healy was even asked if there is scope for complacency to set in, particularly given their dominance in World Cups. “I don’t think it’s quite in the Australian culture to get too complacent about things at any point in time. People tend to write more about us when we lose than when we actually win, so it’s quite a nice thing to experience. I feel like I’m part of a really special group at the moment that wants to be better every single day. That mindset is already in place, it just allows them to go out there and enjoy their cricket on the field. That’s basically as simple as it gets. We go out there, we compete as hard as we possibly can and hopefully the results go our way,” she said.




The postICC Women’s World Cup captains day: Harmanpreet Kaur, Alyssa Healy take centerstage; four captains in Bengaluru and four in Colombo | Cricket News appeared first on Indian Express

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