The former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar feels that the Indian women's cricket team can close the gap with the top-ranked Australian side only if they change their approach and mindset. Indian team have been impressive across formats in recent years with a lot of young cricketers making their mark on the international level. But they have failed to win trophies and titles in ICC tournaments due to Australia's unparalleled dominance for last two decades.
Australia bagged their third successive ICC T20 World Cup title in February this year as they tore apart teams with no resistance throughout the tournament. Australia have recorded six T20 World Cup titles from eight editions while India have managed to reach finals only once, during the 2020 edition. Australian women's team also bagged the recent ODI World Cup last year, their seventh title in 50-over cricket as the Indian team failed to qualify for the knockout stage.
Sthalekar, the India-born cricketer, believes that India can match Australia's success in international cricket if they believe that they win in any situation. She stated that the Australian team approaches the game with a completely different mindset, which is hard to adapt.
"When I was playing and it is the same now, the Australian team believes it can win from any situation, simply because it has done it in the past.
I can talk about my generation. So once you have that belief, it is very hard to train and coach that. You got to be put in those situations and you need to come out of it successfully to start believing that (you can win from any situation). For India, they have been this close so many times, they just need to get over the line and the tide will change," Sthalekar told PTI.
The former Australian skipper also suggested that the Indian women's team will benefit if they bring in India's 'A' team which can travel and compete against international opponents regularly. She believes that the India A side will produce more competition among youngsters to push for selection in the senior squad.
"Besides the WPL (Women's Premier League), potentially if they can put together an India A side that travels that will be an important stepping stone to creating a bucket of players who are pushing for selection at the highest level. Once there is a big influx of fighting for positions, then this Indian team would go to the next level. They are the one side that pushes Australia regularly," Sthalekar added.
