5 Indian Women players to watch out for in World T20

The Indian women team’s recent strong performances have not gone unnoticed. Fans will hope that playing at home the team can bring glory to the nation by winning its first ever World T20. The ever-improving Indian women cricketers will get a chance to become household names since their matches are going to be televised. The team led by the experienced 33-year-old Mithali Raj is in a similarly rich vein of form as its male counterparts this year, going into the upcoming mega event at home. Raj’s team has won five of its six T20Is played in 2016, including a historic 2-1 series win against world champions Australia in January. They followed it up with a 3-0 series clean sweep against Sri Lanka at home in February. The upcoming World T20 will be a good opportunity to promote women’s cricket in India. Here are the five players to watch out for in the global event. 1. Mithali Raj: Indian skipper Mithali Raj. (Photo Source: Twitter) The captain Mithali Raj has been a role model to many young players and raised the bar by becoming just the second female cricketer to make 5000 ODI runs. One of the game’s all-time greats, Mithali was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2015 and expectedly also bagged the MA Chidambaram Trophy for the best woman cricketer at the BCCI Awards 2014-15. She has been the batting mainstay of the side and in good form too, scoring 183 runs at an average of 30.50 since the 2014 World T20, which included four 30-plus scores in 8 innings with a match-winning unbeaten 51 against Sri Lanka the last time she batted. Raj is the highest run-getter for India and one of the 13 in the world to score 1000-plus runs in the shortest format of the game. 2. Harmanpreet Kaur: (Photo Source: Twitter) The 27-year-old top-order batter has played all the previous four editions and is the second highest run-getter for India after her captain. Kaur is a brilliant attacking player who loves to dominate bowling attacks. She has a sound temperament which helps to guide the team in difficult situations. A member of the core leadership group in the team, the experienced right-hander is also in very good form and has scored 30-plus three times in her last seven innings, scoring 164 runs at 23.43 since the last WT20. Apart from her confidence in the words, what’s more striking is her ability to analyse the situation and chase down the target with a clear map in her head which will help India immensely. 3. Jhulan Goswami: Jhulan Goswami of India. (Photo by Darrian Traynor – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images) The 33-year-old former India skipper is one of the senior players in the Indian women’s cricket team. Being one of the senior players, she has been through the grind when women’s cricket was not as big as it is today. She is India’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is with 44 scalps and a decent lower-order bat with a good strike rate of 99.67. A new ball bowler with the ability to get extra bounce, she has turned out for India in more than 200 matches across all formats. That speaks a lot about her talent, ability and consistent performances. She has been handy with the bat as well. Goswami is rated as one of the finest all-rounders in the women’s game in world cricket. 4. Ekta Bisht: Ekta Bisht of India. (Photo by Christopher Lee-ICC/ICC via Getty Images) The 30-year-old slow left-hand orthodox bowler was the highest wicket-taker with seven scalps in the series sweep against Sri Lanka in February and is expected to lead India’s spin department in the World T20 in familiar conditions. Since the 2014 WT20, she has taken 11 wickets in seven matches and jumped to second spot in India’s highest wicket-takers list behind Goswami. In her 16 ODIs, she has been equally impressive taking 26 wickets at an average of 21.50 from 16 matches with an exceptional economy rate of 3.63. She has played 27 T20Is and taken 29 wickets with an economy rate of 5.60. 5. Smriti Mandhana: (Photo Source: Twitter) India warmed-up for the Women’s World T20 with a 29-run win over Ireland in a practice match on Thursday. Smriti Mandhana, the 19-year-old left-hander from Mumbai, hit an unbeaten 73 off 52 balls to lift India to 147 for 4. Mandhana hit 10 fours and a six to stage a recovery for her team from a precarious situation of 16/2 in the 3rd over and showcased her class. The opener has been in a tremendous form recently and India will hope for strong starts from her in the tournament. She has played 16 T20Is scoring 286 runs with a top score of 52. Her ODI record is impressive with 645 runs from 20 ODIs at an average of 32.25 including 5 fifties and 1 hundred.

Topics

Featured Section

Current Series

Cricket Fantasy Tips

Cricket Stats

IPL Teams

ICC Rankings

Interviews

Twitter Reactions

Cricket Appeal

Social Tracker

More Links

# Follow Us

Other Sports

5 Indian Women players to watch out for in World T20

5. Smriti Mandhana:

Latest Articles

Suryakumar Yadav after Tilak Varma's Johannesburg heroics

IPL 2025: Accelerated process to start from player No.117

IPL 2025: 3 batters LSG could sign as KL Rahul's replacement