India women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj snub from the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2018 semi-final has been the big debatable topic in women’s cricket history.
Although she was one of the highest scorers in T20Is, her fall out from the marquee clash had questioned the team management. The veteran, in the recent interaction, had opened up on how she felt after being left behind.
In the semi-final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup against England, India had given a below-par target of 112 runs. The captain Harmanpreet Kaur was out after scoring 16 runs while the star performer Smriti Mandhana scored 34 runs. As expected, England easily chased down the target which led India’s ouster from the mega event.
It was said that if Mithali Raj would have been in the playing XI, results would have been different. However, as nothing can be changed from the past, Mithali has also moved forward from the incident.
In the recent interaction on Star Sports 1 Telugu show ‘Girl Power – Sarileru Manakevaru’, she admitted that she was upset after being axed from the team.
“Honestly, I was quite disappointed that I couldn’t play. But it is something that has happened with every player,” She said.
“I am not the first person with whom this has happened. It is about the team composition and may be captain and coach felt that they had a better player to feed into the eleven. But I always had hopes that if we win that match, I may have the chance in final, I will be able to contribute, and we have a better chance to win the Cup. That was my intention of reaching out to the players in the huddle to pep them up, ‘give your best you, might not get such chances time and again.”
After India’s loss in that semi-final, then coach Romesh Powar’s role came under the scanner. He wasn’t even retained by the BCCI for a second stint and former India cricketer WB Raman was appointed the coach.