Former off-spinner R Ashwin on Monday described the Indian women’s team’s maiden World Cup triumph as a “colossal achievement” and rated it as a bigger milestone than any other major global title the country has won so far.
The Indian team under Harmanpreet Kaur’s leadership beat South Africa by 52 runs in the final on Sunday to win its first ever global trophy.
“I would truly rate this as an even bigger and more colossal achievement than any other World Cup that we have won, because it inspires girls to play the game and consider the sport as a career option,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
‘Indian men’s team has never done something like this’
Following the victory, the team shared the trophy with legends such as Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Anjum Chopra and Reema Malhotra.
Ashwin lauded Harmanpreet and Co. for acknowledging the contribution of their predecessors after the triumph, saying the gesture stood out as the men’s team has never done something like this in the past.
“This victory of the Indian team, how do you see it? Back in 2016-17, when Harmanpreet Kaur played that incredible innings against Australia, after that came the heartbreak against England. Jhulan Goswami was part of that World Cup. Mithali Raj was part of that World Cup,” he said.
“Even yesterday, the Indian team gave the trophy to Mithali Raj. Why did they do that? I actually take my hat off to the Indian women’s team for that. The Indian men’s team has never done something like this,” he added.
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“Sometimes in front of the media, we say things because that’s the media trend, that this person did it or that person did it. But I haven’t often seen anyone giving true credit to the previous generation.
“Usually, it becomes about ‘my generation’s team is good’ and ‘your generation’s team wasn’t that great’. I’ve seen a lot of such discussions,” Ashwin said.
It was a watershed moment for Indian women’s cricket as years of toil and near-misses culminated in an evening of redemption and history, with the team becoming only the fourth side to lift the ODI title.
Recalling an eight-year-old incident, Ashwin said: “Harmanpreet Kaur, from 2009 to the present, has set the ball rolling in many ways. Despite that, when she lost three games in the tournament, people raised questions about her captaincy. And I was surprised. To come from so far behind.
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“Many years back, Ambati Rayudu was playing at the Hyderabad Gymkhana Stadium. It was in 2017/18, and he was already a sensation then, and hence the stadium was packed. However, nobody knew that Mithali Raj, then the captain of the Indian women’s team, was practising at the same venue. And look where we have arrived now.”
