India Women's full schedule for the 2022 World Cup released, Mithali Raj expresses delight

The ICC (International Cricket Council) Tuesday announced the Women's World Cup 2022 schedule which is set to commence on March 4, 2022, in New Zealand. The Women in Blue will open their Women's World Cup 2022 campaign against a qualifying team on March 6 at the Bay Oval in Tauranga.

ALSO READ | Women's T20 Challenge: Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur name 3 young players to watch out for

ICC announce Women's World Cup 2022 schedule, India start campaign on March 6 against qualifier

The tournament opener will see hosts New Zealand squaring off with a qualifier on March 4 at the Bay Oval. The semi-finals will be played at the Basin Reserve in Wellington and the Hagley Oval in Christchurch with the latter also set to host the final on April 3, 2022. Notably, the final at the Hagley Oval will be played under lights.

The ICC announced the Women's World Cup 2022 schedule through a press release. The apex cricketing council confirmed in the release that the pinnacle event for women’s cricket will see 31 matches played across 31 action-packed days between March 4 and April 3, 2022, which also makes it the first global women’s cricket event to be played since the Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia back in March. The tournament, which was originally scheduled to be played in February-March 2021 was postponed, however, the same six host cities and venues have been retained for 2022.

ALSO READ | Harmanpreet Kaur Names Her Idol And It Is NOT Mithali Raj Or Yuvraj Singh

India Women will play seven matches in the group stage against four of the top teams in Women's cricket in the form of New Zealand (March 10), England (March 16), Australia (March 19) and South Africa (March 27). The other three opponents are qualifiers (March 6, 12 and 22) which will be determined later.

ALSO READ | Women's Challenge 2020: Twitter India comes out with special emojis for teams, players

After the Women's World Cup 2022 schedule was announced, India Women's captain Mithali Raj said that she is looking forward to leading her team to a win at the World Cup. Raj further said that everyone has been through a very difficult year and they are happy to be getting back at playing the game they love. She added that India have been doing very well at ICC tournaments in the past three or four years, be it the (ODI) World Cup or the recently concluded T20 World Cup.

The Indian veteran reckoned that if they manage to win the tournament in 2022, it will be a massive inspiration for the next generation of girls, as the fifty-over format, is considered the pinnacle for any cricketer. Raj assured that the team and she are looking forward to it. In the previous edition of the tournament in England, India agonisingly lost the final to the home team at Lord's despite being in a winning position and would aim to go one step ahead to win the title.

ALSO READ | Mithali Raj birthday: Yuvraj Singh again leads cricket fraternity's wishes for superstar

SOURCE: ICC-CRICKET.COM