Mithali Raj: Our first aim is to qualify for the semi finals
Mithali Raj: Our first aim is to qualify for the semi finals

Members of the Team India, including skipper Virat Kohli, wished their women counterparts a successful journey in the upcoming Women’s Cricket World Cup. The Indian team led by Mithali Raj will start their campaign today against hosts England at Derby. This will be the 11th edition of the event.

The women’s side is one of the top contenders without any doubts. Their recent form has been quite dominating. In the past 18 months, Mithali and her girls have won 17 out of the 20 ODIs which also includes a 16 match winning streak which was broken in may this year by South Africa.

Starting with the 3-0 wins over Sri Lanka in February and West Indies in November last year, they went on to win the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in Sri Lanka this February and the Women’s Quadrangular series in South Africa in May.

The pitch conditions may appear to be inconclusive to India’s strength of spin bowling but the ‘Women in Blue’ have decided to go with only three seam option and bank upon their strengths. Left-arm spinner Ekta Bist will be at the helm of the spin attack and will have Rajeshwari Gayakwad (left arm spinner), Poonam Yadav (leg spinner) and Deepti Sharma (off-spinner) as support.

“I would like to wish the Indian Women Cricket Team very all the best for the upcoming World Cup. The team has very exciting players to watch out for,” Says Virat Kohli in the short clip.

“All the best Indian Cricket Team for the World Cup. I know you guys are going to bring it back. Good luck and play amazing cricket,” said Hardik Pandya.

“I wish the Indian women team lots of luck. Have a wonderful tour, enjoy yourself. It is a great feeling to play a world cup. Don’t take the stress and enjoy the journey. I am confident you guys will do really well,” Dinesh Kartik.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the right arm medium pacer, also extended his best wishes.

The upcoming eight-team tournament will also set new benchmarks with record prize money of $2m (£1.57m) on offer apart from huge global sponsors such as Nissan, Emirates, Hublot and Moneygram backing the event.

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

India’s fixtures:

June 24: v England, Derby
June 29: v West Indies, Taunton
July 2: v Pakistan, Derby
July 5: v Sri Lanka, Derby
July 8: v South Africa, Leicester
July 12: v Australia, Bristol
July 15: v New Zealand, Derby

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