India favourites for T20 World Cup —Coach WV Raman

There are a lot of expectations riding on the extremely talented bunch of Indian women players who are heading into the ICC Women's T20 World Cup. The mega event is being hosted by Australia and will begin on the 21st of February. The final of the World Cup is slotted on 8th March which is also the International Women's Day.

The Indian women's team coach, WV Raman has a a lot of faith in his girls and has asserted that they are one of the sides who will enter the World Cup as favourites as they hold the potential of creating history like Kapil Dev's team did in 1983 World Cup. Dev's team had won the men's cricket World Cup for the first time in England.

The Women in Blue will feature in the tournament's curtain raiser against host Australia on February 21, at Sydney Showground Stadium in Sydney. The finalists of the recently completed T20 Tri-series tournament which featured Australia and England as the other two teams, the Indian women's team is a force to reckon with, boasting a bunch of incredibly talented young players.

Raman has heaped praise on this fiery team and told ESPN Cricinfo in an interview, "(They are) definitely one of the favourites. They made people sit up and take notice in the 2017 World Cup and the 2018 T20 World Cup. Since then there has been a lot of improvement, in terms of fitness, agility on the field and their approach to batting," he commented.

The preparations have been top-notch for the World Cup and Raman is positive about the outcomes.

"They have been shaping well over the last six months. It is more or less a better and settled team than perhaps what it was when I took over. These girls have a very good chance in this World Cup," Raman added.

The coach of the Indian women's cricket team harbours a much-needed interest in promoting the sport in the country for the girls. A World Cup victory would definitely cause a turnaround in how things are perceived in the country. A momentous win like this can singularly make the sport of cricket more popular for young girls to take it up.

Just as Kapil Dev's team won the 1983 World Cup and changed the face of Indian cricketing history, the Women's Cricket team also possesses a similar power at the stroke of their bats. Raman has seen the fire in the eyes of the girls as he said, "The way all of them want to do well and take up responsibility will be evident regardless of how things pan out. They are definitely in with a good chance and they have an opportunity to create history," he told ESPN Cricinfo.

There is a lot to be gained if the girls make a good show at the World Cup and Raman is extremely excited about it.

"If they end up doing that (win the World Cup), they will probably do what Kapil's Dev's World Cup-winning team did for Indian cricket in 1983. And they will become superstars if they go on to win," he mentioned.

The team will be playing two warm-up matches before they kickstart their World Cup campaign. A clash against Pakistan on February 16 followed by a match against West Indies on February 18 are on the cards before their first match against Australia against whom they lost the Tri-series final.

Haramanpreet Kaur led side would want to avenge their T20 tri-series loss against Australia and give their World Cup campaign a solid start.