KOCHI: Former coach of the Indian women's cricket team WV Raman feels opener Smriti Mandhana is ready to take up the captaincy mantle of the national side since she has all the necessary attributes. The 56-year-old added a cautionary note that any such decision should be made only after the completion of the World Cup.
"The bit about captaincy and whether it can be given to Smriti, my answer is simply this. Whatever change in captaincy must be thought about after the World Cup. Let things remain as they are and Smriti will be a good candidate, no doubt about that. But this is not the time because the team is preparing for the World Cup. There is no point in making sweeping changes heading into a major event. After the World Cup, I'll also say that regardless of what happens, if we end up winning the World Cup or even if we end up in the top four or whatever the result may be, at that time I think they need to hand over the mantle to somebody else," said Raman during a virtual interaction on Tuesday.
Mithali Raj has been captaining the side in the Test and ODI formats while Harmanpreet Kaur leads the side in the T20I format. While Raman didn't specify which format he felt Smriti could take up, the veteran felt the 25-year-old could be a long-term option when it comes to the captaincy role. Smriti has firmly established herself as one of the key figures of the team and Raman feels she is ready for bigger responsibilities.
"She is a very good reader of the game and she is also well established. She might be in her early 20s but she has already played quite a few years of cricket and there has to come a time when captaincy should be given to a younger cricketer so that you'll have somebody captaining the side at a stretch for some years," he said.
In terms of how India would fare at the World Cup, Raman feels that the team can go deep in the competition.
"We can only go by recent form based on the matches that they've played in England and Australia. They are really gearing towards up a good show in the World Cup and the reason I say this is because they've got Meghna Singh and Sneh Rana who are two good additions in the squad. They have done really well because they look very energetic and they also look capable of handling pressure. That is important when you embark on a major event like the World Cup. Why I mention these two cricketers, in particular, is because they have come into the set-up recently and they have taken to international cricket like how a duck takes to water. That's a good sign," he concluded.
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