Inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League is set to start on, Saturday, marking a new era of women’s game in India. Looking at the success of the men’s edition of the tournament, it was a long wait to see a similar franchise league for female cricketers in India.
Australia and England already have their own franchise league in Women’s Big Bash League and The Hundred, which is doing a lot of good for them. Australia has almost been an invincible side of the modern era. They recently won their sixth T20 World Cup title, third in the last three editions. It is quite clear that they have been by far the better side than everyone in World Cricket at the moment.
While nobody has ever come close to beating Australia in the recent past, team India is the only team which have come very close to getting better off the kangaroos in two close knockout games in the last two major T20 tournaments, including the recent Semi Final match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Cape Town.
Even though India got into a winning position in both the games, Australia managed to gun the Women in blue at the end, showing their ability to win a match from any position. There is no doubt in the kind of the talent India possess but there still a lot of work to do to reach the levels of the current Australian side.
Speaking during a virtual press conference ahead of the inaugural match against Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur shed her views and expectations on the newly born franchise league for Women cricketers in India.
“I think this is a great platform for all Indian players because we have been missing this tournament for a long time. Definitely for Australia and England the WBBL and Hundred have worked very well,”
the 34-year-old opined.
Harmanpreet has always stepped up against the Australians when it mattered the most, including in the last two knockouts where India came very close but somehow agonizingly failed to beat this Australian side. The Indian skipper feels WPL will bridge the gap for Women cricketers in India to win and finish the games from crunch situations like Australia always do.
“After the WPL we are also going to get some good talent and I’m sure the difference you’re talking about, we had love to cut down.”
Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians square off against each other in the inaugural match of the Women’s Premier League at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
