ICC Women's World Cup 2022: "Smriti Mandhana's Temperament Suited To Captaincy"- Former India Captain Shantha Rangaswamy

India made an emotional exit from the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 after losing to South Africa in their last league game. India’s loss meant that West Indies were the fourth team to qualify for the semi-finals along with Australia, England and South Africa. Meanwhile, there are reports that Mithali Raj will retire from international cricket leaving the captaincy position open. Reports of Jhulan Goswami’s retirement is also making the rounds.

Former Indian captain Shantha Rangaswamy said that Smriti Mandhana would be the ideal candidate to take over from Raj. There have been talks about who is the ideal candidate to take over the captaincy and Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur’s names comes first.

“Mithali can go on if she wants to… Smriti should lead. Harman is a proven match-winner and star player but captaincy needs taking responsibility and playing consistently well. Additional responsibility of captaincy may weigh Harman down,” Shantha was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Smriti Mandhana Can Handle ODI Captaincy Better Than Harmanpreet Kaur: Shantha Rangawamy

She further said that Harmanpreet Kaur who is already the captain of the Indian T20I side will be burdened with captaincy is she is chosen as ODI captain as well. Rangaswamy backed Mandhana to replace Mithali Rah saying that the southpaw has the temperament to take the responsibility as captain.

“It will put an additional burden on Harman. Smriti can handle that better. Her temperament is suited to captaincy,” the BCCI Apex Council member added.

India suffered heavy losses against Australia, New Zealand, England after beating Pakistan in their opening game. They also managed to beat West Indies and Bangladesh but their loss against South Africa meant that they were knocked out from the tournament. Deepti Sharma’s marginal no-ball in the penultimate delivery of South Africa’s innings became the turning point of the game. Mignon du Preez who was dismissed in that delivery got a reprieve and then took her side home.

“The expectations were high since they finished runners-up last time. The results came to those who played consistently throughout. India especially in the England game, they were skittled out. Luck played its part too,” Rangaswamy concluded saying.

Also Read: ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2022: Everything Should Come To An End That Is Sport – Mithali Raj Hints At Retirement After India’s Heartbreaking World Cup Exit