Ashleigh Gardner Maintains Australia Still The Best But Concedes: 'India's Going To Be One Of Those...'

Ashleigh Gardner views Australia as the top women’s cricket team in the world currently but acknowledges that India, the recently-crowned ODI world champion, is on track to become a formidable side over the next decade.

Gardner, who played for Australia during their semifinal loss to India in the Women’s World Cup last year, noted significant improvements in the Indian team led by Harmanpreet Kaur.

“India’s going to be one of those teams in the next five to ten years that are going to be very hard to beat,” said Gardner, who would be turning up for Gujarat Giants in the Women’s Premier League starting January 9.

“It’s an exciting prospect, it’s scary as an Australian, but I guess knowing that the game is growing so quickly and rapidly over here,

it’s fantastic to see.”

Despite the defeat to India, Gardner still believes Australia is the best team in the world. “I’ve said in the media since that World Cup (and) I’m not denying that I still think we’re the best team in the world. World Cups showcase your win in those high-pressure moments,” she said.

“If we played any team ten times in a row, I would say that we’re probably going to win eight or nine times. That might sound really cocky, but I just believe that we are the best team in the world still. It was a pretty hard defeat playing against a very good side. We know how damaging India can be and we got challenged throughout,” she added.

From The Champions…

Gardner is not concerned about the absence of a frontline Indian batter in Gujarat Giants’ squad for the Women’s Premier League and remains confident that her team can win the event. Although the Giants only have Renuka Singh Thakur from the World Cup-winning Indian team, they boast a strong lineup of overseas batters, including Beth Mooney, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, and Sophie Devine.

“If you look at all the teams, the overseas (batters) do a lot of the heavy-lifting in all regards. I don’t think it’s going to be any different in our side,” Gardner told the media here during a press conference organised by the franchise.

“Certainly we would have loved a more experienced Indian batter, but they’re all aligned to other teams and there’s plenty of youth within our side.

“Yes, we might not have the likes of Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) or Smriti (Mandhana) within our side, but we have to win with who we’ve got. We’ve got a fantastic squad this year, there’s no reason that we can’t win,” she added.

Gardner expressed confidence in having Renuka in her team for the WPL. “”Renuka has played for India for quite a long time, so I’ve had the privilege of playing against her quite a lot and it’ll be nice to have her on my team this year, knowing that her skill set, she’s obviously a wicket-taker, bowling (option) in the power play and bowling those hard overs,” she said.

“Knowing that I’ve got someone that I can throw the ball to at the start and someone that I’ve got faith in certainly helps,” Gardner added.

Renuka Agrees

With the women’s T20 World Cup set to take place later this year in England, Renuka emphasised that Indian players will continue working towards their next goal. “We have seen a lot of changes since winning the World Cup. We enjoyed a lot for a month but then the message arrived to start training and we played in the Sri Lanka series,” Renuka said.

“Everyone knows what the next goal is and now the standard has been set, we would want to keep it that way.”

Renuka also mentioned her efforts to improve her mental strength after the first edition of the WPL. “Yes my performances have not been that great (in WPL) but all that is in the past and I cannot keep thinking about it,” she said.

“I will try to remain mentally strong because I remember in the first season I was mentally weak, and I worked on it,” Renuka added.

(With inputs from Agencies)