Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri was overjoyed when the Indian team won the inaugural ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup last month. He believes that this victory could help the senior team win the senior T20 World Cup.
New Delhi: Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri was overjoyed when the Indian team won the inaugural ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup last month. He believes that this victory could help the senior team win the senior T20 World Cup.
India’s senior women’s team hasn’t won the Women’s T20 World Cup in the last seven editions. However, they came close when they lost in the final to the tournament’s hosts Australia back in 2020.
Shastri believes that India’s senior team, which plays Pakistan Women in their tournament’s opening match at Newlands on Sunday, can replicate the success of their U-19 team in South Africa. On Sunday, two games will take place in Cape Town. In the second match, Bangladesh will play Sri Lanka.
“I’ve always said the biggest thing that’s going to happen in women’s cricket, and the India women’s team is [not] that far away,” Shastri said on the latest episode of the ICC Review Show.
“I’ve kept saying it for the last six, eight months [India’s women’s team] are not that far away from winning a big one.
“They’ve threatened, they’ve reached finals, they’ve lost some close games, but they’re there,” he added
Shastri was a member of India’s team that won the men’s Cricket World Cup in 1983 under the great Kapil Dev. He said that the victory marked a turning point in the rise of cricket in India
If captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s team rises to the occasion and wins their first T20 title in South Africa this month, the India legend believes a similar spike in the women’s game could occur.
“I know what happened in ’83, when we won the World Cup, it opened up a Pandora’s Box,” said Shastri, who represented the national team in 80 Tests and 150 ODIs between 1981 and 1992,” Shastri said
“The whole look at the game changed, you know, the way players were perceived, the way the game was perceived, the way people wanted. To pack the system, the way the monetisation of the sport changed overnight. I see that happening with [Indian] women’s cricket.”
