The Real Contenders - 2022 Women's World Cup Preview
Australia with a 26-ODI winning streak not too long ago are favorites, but hosts New Zealand have shaped up well in the lead up to the World Cup.
Format, Pitches & COVID regulations
The 2022 World Cup will be held in New Zealand and 8 teams will take part in this. There are 3 Asian teams amongst these 8 but Sri Lanka, which has played no international cricket since Oct 2019, is not one of them. The 1st phase will be a round-robin with each team all the opponents once for a total of 7 games. The top 4 teams will then qualify for the Semi-Finals with the winners fighting it out in the Finals.
The warm-up matches held recently as well as New Zealandâs recently concluded series versus India point to the fact that pitches are likely to be extremely batting friendly and high scoring. Bowlers will need to be smart and teams will hope their new-ball bowlers can extract some movement
With the rise of COVID cases in New Zealand due to the omicron variant, ICC has allowed 3 traveling reserves along with the usual squad of 15. Interestingly, teams will also be allowed to field 9 players (if hit by COVID) and then have 2 female substitutes from the management team. Fans can only hope it doesnât come down to this, but I am unsure why the ICC couldnât allow 5-8 traveling reserves to cover for such a situation.
The contenders
Australia was the best team leading into the 2017 World Cup in England, and if not for that incredible knock by Harmanpreet Kaur, they might have been the defending world champions. However, since then they have taken their game to another level altogether having had a streak of 26-unbeaten ODIs and displayed their depth in every department. In the series against India, there were a couple of injury concerns, and the form of Elyse Perry was in question but they still managed to win a close series 2-1 on the basis of performances of newcomers like Tahlia McGrath. Itâs fair to say, that unless someone produces a Harmanpreet 171-like performance, this might be Australiaâs World Cup to lose.
South Africa with the 2nd highest W/L ratio since the 2017 World Cup is definitely a challenger for Australia to reckon with. In spite of having lost captain Dane van Nierkerk due to an injury, South Africa looks like a solid unit with a superb pace bowling line-up and dependable openers Laura Wolvaardt and the hard-hitting Lizelle Lee.
Hosts New Zealand is coming off a 4-1 win against India where, in addition to the reputed top order, their middle-order made valuable contributions. While results in the warm-ups need to be taken with a pinch of salt, the White Ferns thrashed Australia by 9 wickets chasing down 325 in just 43 overs with each of their top 3 getting runs under their belt. With the omission of spinner Leigh Kasperek, New Zealand will need to depend on the all-round capabilities of Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr.
Two stalwarts of Indian cricket - Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami - will be playing in their final ODI WC. Having won only 4 of the 16 ODIs played post the start of the pandemic, Indian fans will have to be quite optimistic to expect India to go all the way. They did walk away from the New Zealand series with some positives - every batter in the line-up showed the ability to score quickly and bat around Mithali Raj and spinners Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad also getting into a good rhythm. The lack of pace bowling support for Goswami due to the shock omission of Shikha Pandey and their fielding will surely be the biggest two concerns.
Defending champions England cannot be forgotten when discussing the contenders of the upcoming World Cup. Since 2020, England has played 4 series - winning 2-1 v/s New Zealand away, winning 2-1 & 4-1 at home v/s India and New Zealand respectively, and recently losing 0-3 to Australia in the Ashes. The team is full of proven players right from captain Heather Knight to young Sophie Dunkley to the player of the last WC final Anya Shrubsole and wonât be an easy team to deal with.
Predictions
On paper (after favorites Australia), South Africa appears to be the team least likely to drop too many points, and they will likely qualify in the 2nd spot. With plenty of practice in NZ conditions recently and a tendency to over-achieve in World Cups, India should be able to go past England to make it to the Semis, but they probably wonât go past that stage.
New Zealand with the form of their top order and the flat conditions could be the dark horse of this World Cup. While COVID cases may change the team dynamics as the tournament progresses, itâs not unreasonable to expect a South Africa v/s Australia with the favorites winning their 7th title.