Guwahati: With home advantage and current form on its side, the Indian women’s cricket team will look to end a 47-year wait for its maiden ICC title when it takes the field at the ODI World Cup starting with a clash against Sri Lanka here on Tuesday.
Ranked world No.3, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led India will look to make the most of their familiarity with conditions in the 13th edition of the tournament, that is returning to India after 12 years.
The global showpiece will feature eight top ranked teams — Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan — competing in 28 league matches in a round-robin format across four venues in India and one in Colombo for a record prize money of USD 13.88 million.
The prize pool is also nearly four times higher than 2022 and surpasses the men’s 2023 edition (USD 10 million) to be in line with the ICC’s push for pay parity and growth of women’s cricket.
The Sri Lankan capital will host 11 round-robin matches, including Pakistan’s seven league stage games and the marquee clash against India on October 5.
One semifinal and the final are also scheduled there, should Pakistan go all the way.
Form factor
On current form, India arrive with confidence, having recently beaten England in both ODI and T20I series.
They also ended a worrying losing streak against Australia in a recent tournament build-up series. The Indians nearly chased down 413 in the final ODI in New Delhi against the team which is chasing a record-extending eighth title.
Indian vice-captain Smriti Mandhana remains the fulcrum of the batting unit, enjoying the form of her life at the top of order.
The left-hander has already struck four ODI centuries, including two back-to-back against Australia, this year. She averages 66.28 with a strike rate of 115.85.
Her partnerships with young opener Pratika Rawal, who has provided solidity at the top, give India the cushion to post or chase big totals in the absence of an out of favour Shafali Varma.
Playing her fifth World Cup, Harmanpreet, who reserves her best for big tournaments, carries a tournament average of over 50. She smashed a century against England recently and followed it up with a fifty against Australia.
Jemimah Rodrigues, back from injury, scored a composed 66 in the warm-up against England and adds stability in the middle order.
Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol and Deepti Sharma add further depth, while Amanjot Kaur offers a seam-bowling all-round option.
Return of Renuka Singh from an injury would bolster the pace attack as she would spearhead the bowling on flatbeds across the venues.
Twenty-two-year old Kranti Goud, with only six caps to her name, has shown promise with her pace and variations including a searing yorker.
During her country’s tour of England this summer, she joined Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav as the only players to ever take six wickets for India in ODIs in the country, with 6/52 at Chester-le-Street.
However, India’s pace department remains thin on experience.
Renuka aside, the other pacers — Kranti, Arundhati Reddy and Amanjot — have played just 25 ODIs between them and the bowling has conceded 300-plus scores in recent past.
Injuries are also a concern with Reddy having left the field on a wheelchair after being struck in a warm-up game, while Amanjot also had an injury scare before she made a return in the last warm-up against New Zealand.
The spin lineup led by Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Sneh Rana and N Sree Charani, is tailor-made for home conditions but it remains to be seen how much turn would be on offer in the flat decks.
India’s biggest challenge could be mental, as history shows a tendency to falter in crunch situations.
They let slip winning positions in the 2017 World Cup final and in the recent memory, the 2022 Commonwealth Games final, going down to Australia narrowly.
Tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka, led by Chamari Athapaththu, return to the World Cup after missing out on qualification in 2022.
Sri Lanka will rely on 20-year-old all-rounder Dewmi Vihanga, who has already shown her pedigree in the format.
At a Tri-Nation series, she took 11 wickets including a match-winning 5/43 against South Africa, finishing as the tournament’s second-highest wicket-taker.
With five of their league games scheduled at home, they will be boosted by familiar conditions and strong crowd support and could fancy their chances to be among top-four.
A bit of history
India’s women cricketers made their international debut in 1976 against the West Indies, and hosted their first Women’s World Cup in 1978.
The initial years were lean, but the breakthrough came in 1997 when they reached the semifinals.
Their finest moments arrived in 2005 and 2017 when they made the World Cup finals, only to be denied by Australia and England respectively.
Since then, they have shed the underdogs tag, establishing themselves as a perennial contenders for the title.
The other contenders
Australia, the defending champions, will once again start as overwhelming favourites.
They dominated the 2022 edition, highlighted by Alyssa Healy’s record-breaking 170 in the final.
Now under Healy’s leadership, the world’s top-ranked team arrives with form, history and motivation, and will look to maintain their unbeaten record in World Cups held on Indian soil.
Currently ranked second in the world, Nat Sciver-Brunt’s England will be hungry to reclaim the crown they last won eight years ago.
New Zealand and South Africa also enter the tournament with confidence after recent ICC successes.
The White Ferns won the Women’s T20 World Cup last year, defeating South Africa, who had reached their second consecutive final.
Pakistan and Bangladesh complete the eight-team line-up after coming through the Women’s World Cup Qualifier in April.
