India women's cricketer Poonam Yadav has said that she is 'tired' of losing out on a chance to lift the World Cup trophy twice, and that she now eyes winning the 2021 fifty-over World Cup.
India women's leg-spinner Poonam Yadav was one of the stars of the recently-concluded T20 World Cup in Australia. She was also the lone Indian to find a place in the team of the tournament.
However, India faced a crushing loss in the final to hosts Australia as the side was bowled out on 99 while chasing a target of 185.
In an interview with Sportstar, Poonam expressed her pain on losing out on lifting the trophy on two occasions (India also lost in the final of the 2017 fifty-over World Cup).
"I am tired of finishing runners-up twice, pata nahi gold kab milega! But 2021 World Cup should be ours and we will go all out to chase our dreams," said Yadav.
"In the 2017 World Cup also, the same thing happened, it was very tough to get out of that zone. Everyone keeps asking the same question: “Kya hua? Kaise hua?
"At times, you feel irritated because people keep on asking the same questions. Arey, sab ne match dekha, phir bhi kyun puchhte hai ke kya hua? For a player, it gets very difficult to deal with it.
"But then I understand that people have high expectations from us. Trust me, every time I look at the medals, it hurts, and also makes me wonder, when will we win the gold?"
However, she insisted that the target is to win the trophy in the 2021 fifty-over World Cup.
"We have the World Cup lined up next year, so ideally the preparations should start by now. But with the coronavirus effect, things are stalled for now. But we are training at home and keeping ourselves ready. Once the situation improves, we will get back to training. This time, the target is to win the World Cup," she said.
