WPL will play big role in India’s WC preparations

Mumbai: India and Mumbai Indians’ captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes the upcoming edition of the Women’s Premier League will play a big role in preparation for the ODI World Cup which the country is hosting later this year.

She also said that the India U-19 women’s team has set a new benchmark with their second T20 World Cup title win in Malaysia recently. “This WPL is going to play a very big role because this year we have ODI World Cup. After the WPL, we have a very good window where we can work on our fitness,” Kaur told the media during Mumbai Indians’ pre-season press conference here on Wednesday.

“Our U-19 team is setting a benchmark with back-to-back trophies and it’s a very proud moment for all of us,” she added. India legend Jhulan Goswami, MI’s bowling coach and team mentor, said their side has a “quality core team” for WPL and domestic players have also been impressive. “All of them are very quality (players), they have done very well in domestic cricket and they have performed really well. One of them has just now won the U-19 (T20) World Cup, G Kamalini... (and there is) Sanskriti Gupta too,” Goswami said.

“We have a quality core team; we have a few youngsters who have picked it up this season. All of them are very quality (players), equally balanced, they understand their game well and it’s important to have a balanced team,” she added. Mumbai head coach Charlotte Edwards said the team will continue to monitor India seamer Pooja Vastrakar, who is currently injured.

“Pooja is injured at the moment so we will be making a call on that very, very soon. Clearly, she has been a big player for us for the last couple of seasons but we are monitoring her fitness and hopefully

we should be able to announce something really soon,” Edwards said. Goswami said WPL has changed the perspective about women’s cricket and those who are seen in the event get recognition.