India's veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami remains upbeat over her chances of making it to the national squad for the 2022 Women's World Cup in New Zealand despite the fact that she'll be ageing 39 when the postponed tournament eventually comes around.
The flagship event, originally due to be held in February-March next year, has been shifted by the ICC in wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
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The next 50-over World Cup is considered to be last for Jhulan and her longstanding teammate, Mithali Raj. The two greats are expected to bid farewell to the game after giving their one last effort to try and achieve the ultimate glory.
As Mithali pointed out when the ICC took its decision, Jhulan too believes this will give the Indian women's team the much-needed preparation time for the World Cup.
"We have got a lot of time for preparation, almost 18 months, but on the other hand, it would have been good if it happened next year as I was focussed on that for long," Jhulan told PTI.
"Now you will need to think beyond that. We have not played any cricket in the past five-six months and players like me (who play only ODIs) played back in November (2019) as all teams played T20s ahead of the World Cup (2020 in Australia in Feb-March)," she added.
Jhulan, the leading wicket-taker in women's ODI cricket, further said, "To play for India is the biggest honour. Yes, 2022 is the goal now but you have to be part of the process and play matches consistently and perform and then you can think about the World Cup because there is a lot of time left and it is not round the corner anymore.
"At this time, I can only think about the next series and performing in it and start from zero and that is what I am going to do. I can't tell you what may happen between now and 2022 as it is still far away."
"At this moment, it is about getting access to the ground, hopefully, we will have a camp in September before the Women's T20 Challenge (during IPL in November), which is the next assignment we have," she added.
In another matter, Jhulan also responded to the criticism of BCCI by a lot of foreign stars, including Australia's Alyssa Healy, over the timing clash of Women's T20 Exhibition matches in UAE and the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) in Australia.
"The fact that BCCI is going ahead with it is an achievement. It is only this time both events are clashing for the reason beyond our control. What the foreign players said is not right and ethical," she said.
"It is BCCI's decision for the development of Indian cricket and not any other country. If you don't like the timing it is okay but you cannot question BCCI's decision," Jhulan concluded.
(Inputs from PTI)
