Commonwealth Games 2022: Harmanpreet leads India into a new era

New Delhi: At Edgbaston, under the leadership of Meg Lanning and Harmanpreet Kaur, the Commonwealth Games will welcome cricket back into the fold after a 24-year absence.

This will mark a fresh beginning for women’s cricket. A total of eight nations will compete in women’s cricket for the first time at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 in Birmingham, from July 29 to August 7.

Before this, men’s List A matches were held at Kuala Lumpur for the 1998 edition. The 50-over matches, which featured 16 teams, were won by South Africa, with Australia and New Zealand taking home the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) successfully fought for the inclusion of women’s cricket this time around. The women’s competition, however, would be played in T20I format. England, as the host country, qualified automatically for the Games. While the next five best teams — Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Pakistan — made the cut based on the ICC Women’s T20I rankings, which granted them automatic participation for the Commonwealth Games.

Sri Lanka qualified for one of the spots through the qualifications, and Barbados was chosen after winning the Twenty20 Blaze in 2019.

Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand, and South Africa are in Group B, while India, Australia, Barbados, and Pakistan play in Group A. The top two teams from each pool advance to the semi-final round.

In order to advance to the final, the top team in Group A must defeat the second-placed team in Group B in the semifinals. The top team in Group B must defeat the second-placed team in Group A. Each semi-losing final’s team advances to the bronze-medal playoff.

The inclusion of women’s cricket in Birmingham is viewed as a critical opportunity to increase its awareness to a larger multi-sport viewing audience and, at the same time, serve as a crucial example for cricket’s quest to be included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

A sold-out audience may be anticipated at the Edgbaston for the key matches, including the Indo-Pak match on July 31. This is because a substantial portion of Birmingham’s population is made up of people from the Indian and Pakistani diaspora.

Tough opener for India

Australia, the current T20 World Cup champions, selected the same team for the Commonwealth Games that won the 2022 ODI World Cup. Australia’s depth is unmatched, despite the side losing its head coach Matthew Mott to England’s men’s white-ball team.

In the seven T20 World Cups that have taken place till date, Australia have won the coveted trophy five times. It’s safe to say they are also the favourites to win gold at Birmingham. The defending champions, however, have few injury concerns as Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham, and Sophie Molineux will be missed.

Recently, their captain Meg Lanning defeated Beth Mooney to become the top T20I player. Talking about the preparations, Aussie women destroyed the Irish hosts in both games in the most recent T20I summer series, while their matches against Pakistan were postponed owing to inclement weather.

On the other hand, the T20 World Cup 2020 runners-up India have seen a Covid-19 outbreak in advance of the CWG. There are 13 players in the team that arrived in Birmingham, and that number will probably not change at least for the first two group games against Australia and Pakistan.

Leading batter S. Meghana and all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar are being held in isolation in Bengaluru after testing positive for Covid-19. Though, Meghana was chosen as a backup option for openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, Vastrakar’s absence may be a setback for the team. The all-rounder, who was essential to India’s ODI World Cup 2022 campaign, provides gutsy hitting in the lower-order and has the ability to make quick breakthroughs.

However, the Indian team will head into the tournament brimming with confidence after clinching the recently-concluded three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka 2-1.

If India were to win a medal in the quadrennial competition, a lot hinges on a solid core of Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma. With Yastika Bhatia, the wicketkeeper, and Sneh Rana, who was rested for the Sri Lanka series, India has an excellent balance of young and experienced players.

Past history

Indian women should take heart by looking back at the history of World Cups against Australian eves. In previous Women’s T20 World Cup group stage matches, the women wearing blue have defeated Australia by 48 runs in the 2018 edition, which was held in the West Indies. Australia was on the verge of an early exit from the tournament at home in the 2020 edition after India defeated them by 17 runs once more.

However, the overall record still favours the Australians in T20I as they have defeated India in 16 of the 23 games. Indian eves have won just six out of those. Despite the fact that Australia won the 2020 T20 WC by defeating India in front of 86,174 spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, supporters of both teams will be eager to watch how an Australia-India matchup at the CWG 2022 plays out.

With the exception of Australia, neither of the other two teams in India’s group, Pakistan nor Barbados (the CWG’s representation for the West Indies), have the upper hand over the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team. India has outwitted the West Indies 10 out of 18 times and vanquished Pakistan nine out of a possible 11 times.

India may therefore imagine conquering Barbados easily (a scaled-down version of the West Indies) and get into the semifinals.

For Indian women, the 2022 CWG will usher in a new era. An age without the domineering presence of Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj, who were constants in at least one format up to the ODI World Cup in New Zealand this year.

Mithali and Jhulan were the faces of Indian women’s cricket over the past 20 years or so. They have been crucial in many of the sport’s historic triumphs, such as the historic Test victory in South Africa in 2002, the nation’s first-ever series victory (in T20Is) in Australia in 2016, the World Cup’s runner-up finish in 2005, the Test victories over England at Taunton (2006) and Wormsley (2014), and the nation’s Test victories over England at Taunton (2006) and Wormsley (2014).

The two loyal comrades and friends served as pillars of support when things got tough. When India suffered losses like losing the Lord’s final in 2017 and being booted out of their home World Cups in 2013 and 2016, their calming presence was important.

Goswami left T20Is in 2018 and Mithali left ODIs in 2019, but as long as they competed in ODIs, their effect was seen in all formats.

Squads:

India:

Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, S. Meghana, Taniyaa Sapna Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Yastika Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol and Sneh Rana.

Australia:

Meg Lanning (captain), Rachael Haynes (vice-captain), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy (wicketkeeper), Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland and Amanda-Jade Wellington.

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When & where to watch?

The match will commence at 3:30 pm IST on Friday.

The live telecast will be aired on Sony Network in India. – INDIA NEWS STREAM