Sneh Rana, an Indian women’s cricket team spin-bowling all-rounder, thinks that recent success of Rohit Sharma and his crew in the T20 World Cup has replenished a sense of self-confidence and determination in players of female squad.
This is their motivation for fighting to win their first ever ICC trophy.
India will again be the top contenders to take home the Women’s Asia Cup that begins on Friday in Sri Lanka. But this is only a tip of the iceberg as they are preparing for the T20 World Cup to take place in October and the one-day World Cup that they will host next year.
The Indian team has come close to winning many times; therefore, Rana believes it has made extraordinary strides towards global competition success. She even strongly insists that elusive triumph is around them and that can easily be achieved.
Sneh Rana told PTI exclusively on Friday while giving an interview “it’s not like 2-3 years back if we see Indian women cricketers playing.”
“Let’s go United Nations Trophy (UN); For (winning) ICC Trophy (International Cricket Council), take men’s also, it took almost ten years to get into trophy. They have been preparing hard for it for long time,” she added.
“It won’t happen overnight to achieve something big like this; It will take time. It will involve so much sacrifice, struggle plus many others. We shall end up there one day” stated by Rana.
Although, according to Rana herself, fielding remains a problem area which needs addressing: both coaching staffs and players already see it. Their performance improvement ,as regards this aspect of play maybe hindered by lack of determination according to Rana.
“We do more mistakes when we play so many matches no?” says she. “But doesn’t mean those people are bad at it you know? Because you are playing for your country as a player, you always give your best on the field.”
“It is about the way one thinks. Apparently, you are an experienced cricket player in the sense that you have played 50 overs and 20 overs before. However, it was only two years ago that we last had long forms like multi-day ones,” she said.
“For four days, you have to be playing on the field, you should have endurance for that. As a senior player fitness is very vital and thus it is (even) more important because you have to be there all the time.” Rana took 10 wickets against South Africa in Chennai Test match earlier this month.
“You should also guide your juniors. This is a bit tricky. Finally it’s all about having the right thinking,” she concluded.
According to Sneh Rana, The Women’s Premier League has made Indian players busier than ever before but its versatility will help in the long run.
“Since WPL came, we have become a bit more busy. I think ‘the busier, the better’. Ever since WPL came into being, cricket has been overexposing itself as well. Exposure of matches always helps a player.
“The flexibility or adaptability that WPL offers by interacting with some overseas professionals while sharing dressing rooms with them shall introduce (The) new breed of talent for ladies,” she said.
Rana’s greatest motivation now is to win back her position on India’s white-ball side after not being selected for Asia cup tournament – definitely quite an obstacle.
“It was slightly sad to get dropped from team no denying that. Whether it’s test match cricket or white ball cricket you want to play for india,” she said.
“But at the same time its made me really hungry again to come back again with my team mates T20 format or may be 50 over game I can’t wait” she said
“I know I possess such qualities within myself and I wrote down my intentions too”, claimed Sneh Rana who has played 27 ODIs and 25 T20Is.
“Compared to some of the coaches that came before Amol Muzumdar, Rana was in favour of the extension of tenure for this coach”, he said.
“A lengthy time spent in a team by a coach or a player will help with sustainability. With the much time one spends with the team, knowledge about the player and bonding within automatically increases” Rana said.
“He knows every other person in addition to their strengths…and how they can be deployed during a match. He knows everything concerning when, where and how to use any single individual,” Rana added.
