Ever since the announcement of the Indian squad for the New Zealand series and the ODI World Cup has been announced, it has been under a lot of attention. With major players like Jemimah Rodrigues, Punam Raut, and Shikha Pandey missing out there are lots of question marks on the squad and how India would perform in the upcoming World Cup.
Mithali Raj has been appointed as the captain for the 2022 World Cup and is optimistic about the chances for the World Cup to win. According to her, the performances in the series against New Zealand just before the World Cup will be essential as it will help understand what needs to be done for the World Cup. With the World Cup also being played in New Zealand, it will help them gain experience and get practice on the pitches which they can expect in the world cup. They will have a chance to formulate their plans and also get a slight advantage as they would have experienced the conditions.
Skipper Mithali Raj is confident about India’s bowling attack, going ahead in the series against New Zealand.#NZvIND #MithaliRaj pic.twitter.com/RrN4sCwvb2
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 13, 2022
The Captain is generally optimistic about the team saying that they would have more time to work on their skills and also backing the experienced spinners and seamers who have been instrumental in the success of the Indian Team.
As for specific individuals in the team, this is what she had to say-
“There are a lot of youngsters coming up, of course in the team we have Smriti, Shafali and Sneha Rana has been really good in the last two series. We have Renuka who has done well, Meghna Singh is there, these players are already part of the team,” Mithali said. “We also have Yastika who is one series old. Richa who has done well in Australia, both the young girls have done well and looked at the challenger trophy there is depth and talent it’s just the matter of getting them the sought of exposure,” she said to ANI.
This also might be Mithali Raj’s last world cup and she would want to make it count. She has retired from the T20 world cup in 2019 and her retirement from the other formats might also not be too far away. India has not won the world cup yet and has come close a couple of times. They would want to change that and with the added bonus of getting to play matches in New Zealand, they would want to make these matches count and win them. This would help them gain confidence as a team and also for young players to show their skills for increasing their chances to get selected in the World Cup playing 11.
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