‘India Needs Openers to Set the Tone’

Lisa Sthalekar feels a lot will hinge on openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana giving India good starts in the competition happening from October 3-20…reports Niharika Raina

Former Australia captain Lisa Sthalekar believes India’s chances of winning the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup in the UAE are very high. She also feels a lot will hinge on their openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana giving India good starts in the competition happening from October 3-20.

At the World Cup, India are placed in Group A alongside defending champions Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side are targeting their first ever women’s T20 World Cup title.

“So, obviously, I think Australia are going to be in the semifinals. They’re the reigning champions. They’re going for 4/4. England have been strong, though they played New Zealand twice. They lost against Ireland recently, though they didn’t send their strongest side. But you get a sense that they’re building nicely and they’re taking a challenge.

“India, of course, will have the challenge led by Harmanpreet Kaur. I saw that she wrote an article on the ICC saying they were finalists in 2020 and that they’ve been semi-finalists for a long time. I think they’ve got every possibility (to change that), but I think they will be relying on their openers to get off to a good start, then they’re all round this one.

“Like, if Pooja Vastrakar – she can stay fit and is on the path back, she’ll be quite a handful for a lot of sides. So, India’s chances are very high. I would expect them in the semi-finals position, if not the finals. I think they’ve got the power, depth, and decent bowlers. It’s probably that 4-5-6-7 position – can they actually score at a good rate? I’ll be fascinated to see if the openers and Jemimah Rodrigues can fire in the UAE.

“Then the fourth side – I don’t think New Zealand will be there, based on what I’ve seen. South Africa, obviously, were the finalists in 2023. They seemed to have a similar squad, so they have to push. Also, never discount West Indies – if they turn up like the men’s side, and have a great tournament, then anything can be possible,” Lisa told IANS during a virtual interaction at ABC-International Development’s cricket commentary and mojo program.

Lisa, who won 2010 and 2012 T20 World Cups as an all-rounder with the Australian team, will be commentating on the upcoming tournament in the UAE. She talked about how T20 cricket’s unpredictability makes her like the shortest format of the game.

“Anything is possible. The great thing about T20 cricket, compared to the 50-year-old cricket, is someone can have a day out, or someone can have an exceptional bowling spell. An example is Poonam Yadav back in 2020, the first game against Australia, she picked up maybe 3 or 4 wickets (4/19).

“She pretty much dislodged the Australian middle order, so they didn’t score enough. So, someone could have a day out. That’s Shafali, Smriti, Harman, or any of the other top order players from India could score a century in some of the games in either way. So, that’s what I love about this format.

Lisa further explained the main ethos of defending champions Australia’s winning mindset which has yielded a hat-trick of T20 World Cup wins in 2018, 2020 and 2023, apart from 2022 ODI World Cup triumph and Commonwealth Games T20 gold medal in the same year.

“Australia has predominantly won because there is a mentality within the side that they can win from any situation. For example they got bowled out in the second game against New Zealand for 142. New Zealand in the first game scored 143 they just needed to replicate that to win. Australia bowlers bowled tighter lines, and in the end New Zealand lost by 29 runs.

“So there is always a belief within that side of winning – you can’t hope for that and you can’t train that. It’s just about playing games of cricket and being in those situations and finding a way out. Most of those girls have experienced it and done it so there is a real belief that doesn’t matter what happens and we are seeing India more so than any other country really push Australia.

“But when India look like they’re home, there’ll be one little thing that happens where Harmanpreet Kaur trips over her bat and gets run out, or there’ll be something where the door is slightly open. As soon as that happens, the Aussies will jump all over it, and that’s what makes them slightly different.”

The 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be the first ICC event where women will receive the same prize money as their men counterparts. “From a prize money perspective, I think it’s really good. But what I’m more pleased about is not necessarily okay if whoever wins gets the same amount as male. But how much money teams are getting for firstly, kind of participating in the World Cup and then if you win a round-robin game, you get a certain amount of prize money.”

“So it ensures that the it’s not just the strong nations getting stronger and wealthier, but there’s an effort at growing the global game. So, Scotland coming in for the first time will earn probably more money than their national contract. The headline is equal prize money and that was primarily the intention but when you look a little bit deeper, they’d like to have a bigger impact on the game,” concluded Lisa.

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