Women’s cricket will be making its debut at the Commonwealth Games this time.
Former India captain Anjum Chopra was a guest on Times of India’s sports podcast Sportscast recently an talked about the debut of women’s cricket at the CWG, the current Indian women’s T20 squad, Harmanpreet Kaur the captain, what it is like to play cricket for medals and not trophies and more.
India is in Group A with Australia, Pakistan an Barbados. The highly anticipated India vs Pakistan match is scheduled to be played on July 31 in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
On India’s medal chances overall at CWG 2022 in women’s cricket…
‘When you get into a contest and the first match lined up is India vs Australia you get a sense that the organisers want two big nations to clash (in the opener). Yes, Australia has got the better of India most number of times in any format, but there is always an India-Australia competitive rivalry in any format. Also, Australia hasn’t played a lot of cricket going into the CWG. They have travelled to Ireland but their games have been restricted and they are coming off a winter, so the season has been restricted for them so far. But the Indian team is going in after having played a decent amount of cricket. After the World Cup in April, they didn’t play for a few weeks and then they played the Women’s T20 challenge and after that the team went to Sri Lanka. However that doesn’t put them on a stronger footing against Australia, but it does provide that momentum, that extra bit. And that might be the edge that the Indian team requires. You never know, an upset might happen and I say upset because Australia are the (Women’s) T20 World Champions….Harmanpreet Kaur will leave no stone unturned to make sure that the team gets the success required. She knows that it hasn’t been an easy ride for her to reach this position in the Indian team and she knows how she is regarded internationally as a cricketer, so I am sure she is going to get that extra zeal from the team,’ Anjum further said on TOI.
On the India squad that has been picked for CWG 2022…
‘(The Indian T20 team for the CWG) is pretty balanced. In the T20 format Jemimah Rodrigues comes in, Radha Yadav becomes a very important member. Richa Ghosh misses out, Simran Bahadur misses out. Poonam Yadav is not part of the 15. So, at last those 18-19 are the same ones who have been travelling with the Indian team. I still feel that the Indian team would be wanting to firm up their middle order, because that’s essential. You can’t just rely on your openers and good knocks from a Harmanpreet Kaur or a Deepti Sharma. The team will know that it is essential to have a strong middle order. They have the luxury of playing more all-rounders, so they have more bowling and batting options. But those batting options are not big hitters and that is why they need a strong middle and lower order,’ Anjum further said on TOI Sportscast.
Meezan 
Anamika 
Harsh