A lot was expected of Virat Kohli and his men ahead of their Champions Trophy title defence in England last month. The Royal Challengers Bangalore star had led India to the pinnacle of Test cricket after a dominant home season in which his side skittled the likes of New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia.
Kohli started his maiden ICC tournament campaign on a high when the Men in Blue crushed arch-rivals Pakistan by 124 runs in Birmingham on June 4. Despite suffering a shock defeat to Sri Lanka, India managed to make it to the semi-final after crushing South Africa in the final group stage match.
Bangladesh posed no threat in the semi-final and cricket fans were treated to another India-Pakistan encounter, this time for the title match quadrennial event. Contrary to expectations, Kohli and his men fell to an 180-run defeat, leaving cricket fans in the country disappointed and devastated.
Cut to July 2017, an Indian cricket team, this time led by veteran Mithali Raj, is winning hearts once again. Even as Kohli's unit is involved in a low-key One Day International series in the West Indies, the girls in blue are garnering all the attention with their superlative display at ICC Women's World Cup.
On Sunday, July 2, India women took the centre stage as an unusually massive hype surrounded their group-stage match against Pakistan Women. While cricketers from both the sides played down the hype, the contest in Derby was seen as the resumption of the battle between the two countries that ended in favour of Pakistan two weeks ago.
Mithali's side though showed the world they were not perturbed by what was being said off the field as they crushed Pakistan women even after getting bowled out for 169. Left-arm slow bowler Ekta Bisht sent five Pakistani batters back to the pavilion as India bowled out Sana Mir's side for a meagre 74.
Wishes poured in for the victorious side from across the cricket fraternity and quite a few former and current India players joined the bandwagon.
Congratulations @BCCIWomen on a fabulous victory against Pakistan in the ICC #WWC17 .Hats off on such a spirited effort. #INDvPAK
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) July 2, 2017
Notably, India men's cricket team batting coach Sanjay Bangar heaped praise on MIthali's side, saying the women cricketers are proving to be a huge inspiration for Kohli and his men. The former India all-rounder also urged the team to go the distance and win the World Cup, which according to him, will make up for India's loss in the Champions Trophy final.
"I want to congratulate our Indian women's cricket team. They won three matches on the trot. Today [Sunday] as well, they needed to defend just 169 runs. So they displayed a spectacular bowling performance. We [India men's cricket team] are getting inspired from them fully," Bangar said, as quoted by ANI.
"They had already won three matches, but the tournament is very long. I hope the tempo and the early momentum they have got will continue. Hopefully, the women's team could make up for Indian men's Champions Trophy loss by winning the World Cup," he added.
Indeed, the women's cricketers in England are showing the world how it needs to be done on the biggest stage of world cricket. Mithali's side opened their campaign with a commanding win over England and went on to decimate West Indies and Pakistan.
It is refreshing to see the Indian spinners -- Bisht, Deepti Sharma, Harmanpreet Kaur and Poonam Yadav [18 wickets between them so far] -- bamboozle opposition batters in conditions that did not help the likes of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja a couple of weeks earlier. The former, on Sunday, gave the ball enough air and produced a masterclass of spin bowling.
