India women’s team’s head coach WV Raman thinks that countries having franchise league gain any extra advantage in T20 World Cup as playing for the country and playing franchise league are completely different. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Veda Krishnamurthy and Deepti Sharma have featured in the overseas league so far from India.
“Playing franchise cricket is one thing and playing international tournament, where your country features, is a different game altogether. They may be familiar with the conditions but this is a different platform. The pressure element is different,” Raman said at the pre-departure press conference before the tri-series involving England and hosts Australia.
The tri-series will begin from January 31 before the T20 World Cup in February.
“That (depth) will definitely help us psychologically. At the start of last season, we did not do well enough in the few games. After that, the unit settled down. Each one of the players had a good hit, they are all in good nick and they have also worked on their skills, which means you do have a fair bit of sense of security and confidence going into this tournament,” he added.
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“We are covering all other bases. This is a young team which is perhaps one of the best. They are enthusiastic, positive and focused. That’s very important,” said the coach. “I won’t use the word obsess but we are keen to do well and in terms of T20 format, so we are looking to put our best foot forward.”
The team has included teenagers Shafali Verma (15) and Richa Ghosh (16) but WV Raman said skill is important for them, not the age.
“In today’s era, age on either side is just a number. It’s about the talent that there is what they can do on what they can bring to the table as far as the requirements of team is concerned. So I don’t think we should necessarily focus on the age part of it,” he expressed.
“If we’re talking about somebody like a Shafali, who is 15-year old, we all have heard of the adage saying, young cubs know no fear. So this is a brand of cricket that we look to play and it is a format where people need to be positive,” he added.
“So along those lines, we need a lot more people with fresh minds and with a lot of positivity with no fear at all. I think that’ll be a big advantage and they complement the more experienced predators like Smriti, Harman and Veda. So, this is a good blend I think,” he concluded.
