On road to becoming far more superior team than World Cup: Mithali Raj

"We are on the road to becoming a far more superior team than we were in the World Cup."

This was a strong statement Indian women's ODI captain Mithali Raj made here on Tuesday ahead of the T20 tri-series starting on Thursday. Australia and England are the other teams in the series that will be played at the Brabourne Stadium.

"The girls have been working on their fitness. We look different now. We are more agile, fitter now than we were in the Women's World Cup last year," Mithali, 35, said when asked if Australia were superior physical appearance wise and had better chances to win in the T20s.

Mithali did admit that power-hitting has become the norm in T20s and that the Indian women needed to work on it. "The girls do realise that and we are working on it," she said.

India, though, are not without their fair share of power-hitters. Mithali said: "I am sure we need to pick players and give them specific roles and they need to work on it. That's what Australia have been doing for the past couple of years. They have picked their players and they know what exactly they need to do in the team. We do have power-hitters in our team in Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy. You have also seen what Pooja (Vastrakar) is capable. We need to give her more opportunities to groom her into an all-rounder."

'CONTRACT WILL BRING BEST OUT OF THEM'

Mithali gave thumbs up to the BCCI contract system that the women's cricketers have been brought under, with the introduction of 'C' grade to 'A' and 'B'. "It is a great decision. When you have a contract in place, the players tend to invest (time and energy in the game) more because you know that you are getting paid to give your best performance. You have to keep your fitness levels high and each time you walk in to the ground, you are expected to be professional and perform to the best of your ability. There are a lot of players who come the interiors of India where financially they are not very sound. But, with the contract system, every cricketer can now aim to play for India and know they are financially secure to take up cricket as a professional," Mithali said.

On the growing debate if there needed to be an IPL for women to improve the domestic structure or to first have a good domestic structure and then have them play in IPL. Mithali opted for the latter, and was seconded by her long-time team-mate and world's first to 200 wickets in women's ODIs, Jhulan Goswami.

"It is important to have a pool of players who will qualify for IPL kind of a league. For India 'A' itself, we need more quality players. Once we have that many players, it will be wise enough to have IPL because there will be a stark difference between domestic and international players. It might go against women's cricket. When you have a strong domestic set up and churn quality domestic players, then giving them an opportunity in IPL makes sense," said Mithali.

'AGE NOT A FACTOR'

Injury to Jhulan during the ODIs in South Africa last month and subsequently ruled out for the T20I saw the recall of fellow Kolkatan Rumeli Dhar as her replacement. Dhar, a right-arm medium-pacer, was recalled into the Indian team after a gap of more than five years, and had a decent haul of 0/22 and 3/26 in the two T20Is in South Africa.

Asked if this was a step backwards in going back to the 34-year-old Dhar or if it reflected on the non-availability of quality medium-pacers, Mithali said: "Yes, there has been a break since Rumeli Dhar last played for India.

Selectors got her back in SA because Jhulan got injured during the series. Rumeli has done very well in domestic T20s. Age should not be a factor. If you do well in domestic, selectors will show interest in giving that player an opportunity in the Indian team. She has done reasonably well in South Africa T20s when given the opportunity."

Mithali also said that lanky fast bowler, Mansi Joshi, who was part of the World Cup squad last year, was "injured last year and is recovering at National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru".

Having relinquished T20 captaincy and passing over the baton to Harmanpreet Kaur a couple of years ago, Mithali even opened in T20s to bat freely. But that may change with young hard-hitters Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues looked at as T20 openers.

Mithali said: "The way both have played in the last game (sharing 101 in under 14 overs for first wicket in third ODI against Australia in Baroda last week), it looks like the two players will open. They are young, very positive and gave us a good start in the one-dayers."