Coming into the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025 as defending champions could have heaped pressure on Niki Prasad, but the new captain of the inaugural winners is embracing the responsibility as she and her side aim to retain the trophy.
In fact, when asked how the team would keep their feet on the ground after a dominant opening win over the West Indies, Prasad was more concerned about how they will continue to win to the very end.
“Being the champions last time, we are just coming in with that confidence,” she said.
“And we are here to win so that is what we will try to do every game.
“Playing tournaments like the Women’s Premier League and the Challenger Trophy gives you a lot of confidence when you get scores or when you get wickets, you are then quite confident to come here and show what you can do.”
Only three players have returned from the winning squad of 2023, but the new faces were not overawed by the occasion.
A trio of bowlers put the West Indies on the backfoot, with seamer VJ Joshitha setting the tone with two wickets in the two balls.
Aayushi Shukla contributed two vital wickets at important times while conceding just six runs from her four overs and contributing to the run-out of Abigail Bryce.
Her fellow left-arm spinner Parunika Sisodia took three wickets for just seven runs to bowl out West Indies for 44 runs.
Joshitha said: “It is a wonderful start for us, the team was really supportive so I felt confident to bowl.
“I am looking for swing more with the ball, I have good speed so I like to swing it. I like Bhuvenshwar Kumar, I like his action so I have tried to copy that.”
That team support could be felt, and heard, at all moments with the players vocal in the field.
The aim was to keep each other sharp, which duly worked as India created three run outs during the Windies’ innings.
Bowling the West Indies out in 13.2 overs gave India just enough time to chase down their target of 55 runs before the rain began to fall heavily.
As Sisodia said, everything fell perfectly for them.
She explained: “Our plans were pretty simple, seeing the conditions and the weather, we decided if we won the toss we were going to field first because the weather is for bowling and that is what our team did.
“For me, there were very simple plans just to bowl ahead and let the ball do the work because already we were in a very good position and the weather made it pretty hard for the batters to bat on.
“We are always looking forward to playing a game, expressing ourselves and everything is falling into place.”
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