Mithali Raj is hopeful that the continuation of Women’s T20 Challenge for another two years will pave the way for Women’s Indian Premier League.
Mithali will be leading the Velocity team in the Women’s T20 Challenge, which is set to start from Wednesday in the UAE. Her team will take on the defending champion Supernova in the season opener.
Mithali Raj said that the inauguration of Women’s IPL would be the kind of platform young girls need and will improve India’s domestic structure.
“Well I think it is important as if there is a continuation of this tournament, then I guess in another 2 years time we can have a full-fledged IPL for women. It is important that there is a continuation from last year to this year and then next year.
“So that it becomes a yearly tournament and every year we have this platform for the young girls and other domestic players to interact with each other and other overseas players. It sort of creates a good vibe and also improves the standard of our domestic structure,” Mithali told Sports Today.
Mithali Raj on Women’s T20 Challenge:
As this would be the first platform for Indian women’s cricket to resume cricket, Mithali Raj feels that it is a good opportunity for players to move forward. But she looks forward to how players adapt to the new normal.
“Honestly from the player’s point of view, we usually have the luxury of coming from a season or having a few matches under our belt.
“But this is straight away into the tournament, so even as players this is something new for us, but even I am curious to see how we as players have adapted to the new norm of quarantine and coming into the bio-bubble.”
As all the four matches will be hosted in Sharjah, Raj stated she was fortunate to play in that stadium because iconic because Sachin Tendulkar scored a century there.
“Yes Sharjah is a small stadium, but for me it is the iconic stadium where I have heard a lot about Sachin’s innings at Sharjah, so I am just fortunate to be able to play in the stadium where he scored those runs,” she said.
Mithali Raj’s team was the runner up last season. The final of this season will be played on November nine.