Shelley Nitschke, head coach of the Australia women’s team, has praised India’s progress in the cricket world, stating that the country’s growth has been nothing short of phenomenal, particularly in the past five years. Shelley Nitschke, head coach of the Australia women’s team, has praised India’s progress in the cricket world, stating that the country’s growth has been nothing short of phenomenal, particularly in the past five years.
When India’s women’s cricket team finished as runners-up in the ODI World Cup in 2017, they even beat Australia in the semi-final. After that, they finished in second place at the T20 World Cup in 2020 and won the silver medal in the Women’s T20 Cricket competition at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games earlier this year.
“When I first played India in the 2005 World Cup, when Australia won and they reached the final, I believe that was the beginning of a real growth period for them, and they just seem to get better. They’ve experienced a real acceleration, I believe, over the past four or five years.
Their batting aggression is evident to us. “I think their growth has been phenomenal, especially in the last five years,” Shelley said prior to the fourth T20I at Brabourne Stadium.”It exactly satisfies our expectations of them and their home nation. They have a few incredible youthful players. In the field, they are agile.
In recent times, India has been difficult for Australia to face, such as when the team led by Harmanpreet Kaur defeated them in the opening match of the T20 World Cup in 2020, when they ended their 26-match winning streak in one-day internationals in 2021, or when they won a thrilling Super Over match in the second of five T20Is at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai in 2022.
“When Shafali (Verma) stated that India looks forward to playing Australia, I believe she is correct. We do notice that when we play India, they play to their full potential and really challenge us. I think Shafali has been one that we’ve seen develop throughout the long term and is unquestionably having a great series and to see Richa Ghosh out there too in this series, it sure looks good for the future for India.”
It also challenges us and pushes our group. I believe they have contested in the manner we anticipated. They make a strong team. In India, they play hard cricket in hard conditions.”It’s been a really close battle so far, and it’s good to be ahead 2-1, but there are two really important games to go,” added Shelley. “It’s been a really close battle so far.”
Australia leads the series 2-1 after winning the third T20I at Brabourne by 21 runs following the Super Over defeat. They have a chance to win the series in Saturday’s match. The coach acknowledged that there have been changes to the eleven as a result of illness and injury in the camp, but he believes that defending 172 in the third T20I will boost bowlers’ confidence as they prepare for the T20 World Cup in South Africa next year.
“That should give them a lot of confidence. In the third game, I believe they bowled much better lines out here, so it was definitely a really good effort from our bowling group. We’ve had a few injuries and illnesses along the way, which has forced us to make those changes. However, it also gives us a chance to look at some things as we get closer to the World Cup,” she said at the end.