Aiming for glory

Mumbai girls Punam Raut and Smriti Mandhana will be key components of India’s quest for a maiden title in the ICC Women’s World Cup. Our Indian eves open their campaign against hosts England in Derby on Saturday. India’s best finish in the past ten editions of the quadrennial event has been runner-up during the 2005 World Cup in South Africa.

Punam and Deepti Sharma put on a world record 320-run opening stand to set up a massive 249-run win for India over Ireland in the quadrangular tournament at Potchefstroom, South Africa last month. Punam scored 109 off 116 balls and hit 11 boundaries. Deepti’s stunning 188 came off 160 balls with 27 fours and two sixes. India’s 358 was the second highest score in women’s ODI.

India won the tournament by beating South Africa by eight wickets in the final to mark their fourth consecutive ODI series win since February last year.

The 27-year-old Punam, a veteran of 44 ODIs, 35 T20Is and two Tests will be playing her third ODO World Cup. She has appeared in two T20 World Cups as well.

The 20-year old Smriti became the only Indian cricketer to be named in the Women’s Team of the Year 2016. Earlier, she had become the second from India, after Harmanpreet Kaur, to sign a one-year deal with the Brisbane Heat for the Women’s Big Bash League.

Smriti has made a comeback to the World Cup squad after being out of action since January with a knee injury sustained during the Women’s Big Bash League. She hit an unbeaten 77 to guide India out of trouble and to a five-wicket win over West Indies women in a practice game last Friday. Mandhana’s unbroken sixth-wicket partnership with Mona Meshram (40 no) took India to 175/5 in 42.4 overs after they had restricted the Windies, runners-up of the last edition, to 174/9 in 50 overs in Leicester.

Mona of Nagpur is the first woman cricketer from Vidarbha to represent India. She is a utility middle order batsman. Both Punam and Mona made a comeback to the Indian team recently. The 25-year-old Mona has played 18 ODIs and eight T20Is for India. “It’s nice to see a comeback player like Punam Raut to be amongst the runs. We had a good start (in South Africa) which is a great sign as we have struggled with good opening starts in the past,” Indian women’s team skipper Mithali Raj said at the pre-departure press conference in Mumbai on June 10.

Smriti though young has enough international experience with 23 ODI appearances, 27 T20Is and two Tests. She is a dependable top order batsman. Smriti was born in Mumbai, and she was raised in Sangli and represented Maharashtra in first-class cricket.

Former Baroda player Tushar Arothe coaches the team. The 50-year-old Marathi speaking coach previously had a stint as the Indian women fielding coach and head coach between 2008 and 2012. He has the rare distinction of representing Baroda in more than hundred first-class games.

He took over the team’s reigns in April and the recently concluded quadrangular series in South Africa, which India won, was his first tournament as coach in his second stint. He also supervised a preparatory camp for the ICC World Cup held at the MCA’s stadium, BKC in Mumbai which was marred by rains.

“We are happy with the practice session. The girls did well in South Africa. We had indoor nets available (at BKC) and had 3-4 out sessions on the ground, and we enjoyed it,” Arothe said on the same day.

The Indian team has a good batting line-up and have relied on spin bowling to produce results despite the presence of the experienced fast bowler Jhulan Goswami. Fielding has been a concern and Tushar will be focusing on the fielding and fitness of the players.

“When I took over as a fielding coach in 2009, we started doing fielding drills regularly. Over a period they have improved. When I became a coach, we won a couple of matches against Bangladesh with our good fielding. Similarly, in South Africa, we took some brilliant catches as well as earned some wickets through run-outs. So I am hoping we will do well (in fielding) in the World Cup too,” he said.

Squad:
Mithali Raj (Captain), Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Punam Raut, Deepti Sharma, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Ekta Bisht, Sushma Verma, Mansi Joshi, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Nuzhat Parveen, Smriti Mandhana.