Mithali Raj reveals the key for India to win first Women's ODI World Cup
NEW DELHI: Former India captain
Mithali Raj
believes the current women's team has what it takes to lift a maiden ICC Women's ODI World Cup — provided they can seize crucial moments during the tournament, which begins on September 30.
India enter the eight-team event among the title favourites, but will have to contend with the experience and dominance of seven-time champions Australia and four-time winners England.
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'I think (India) needs to seize those small moments during the big games. That's where the balance (is) of the teams that are in contention. They try to use more of those moments and try to shift the momentum to their side, and India need to seize those moments,' Mithali told ICC Digital on Thursday.
Mithali, who captained India to runners-up finishes in 2005 and 2017, said winning the trophy at home would be a massive boost for women's cricket in the country. 'I mean, that is something that all the players, whoever picks up the bat, whoever wants to represent the country, would want to win the World Cup because so far India hasn't.
'Yes, we've come close twice, but we haven't got our hands on the Cup. It would be great to win a World Cup at home because that's a very different stage altogether...
and giving all of us an opportunity to see that,' she added.
While the spotlight will naturally be on captain
Harmanpreet Kaur
,
Jemimah Rodrigues
, Deepti Sharma, and Smriti Mandhana, Mithali believes a breakthrough performance from young pacer Kranti Goud could prove decisive. Goud, who emerged as one of the standout talents in WPL 2025, impressed during India's ODI and T20I series wins in England and has played four ODIs so far.
'I was quite impressed with Kranti Goud in England with her raw talent. She has played WPL (Women's Premier League), but she does not really have that much experience. But the grit that she gets as a seamer trying to keep pegging in and getting wickets (is impressive), and she picked up a six-wicket haul (in England) as well, so I would love to see her in the World Cup playing at home,' Mithali said.
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