Since making her debut for India in 2002, Jhulan Goswami has achieved each accolade the cricketing world has to supply, be it captaining the facet or spearheading the tempo assault. Now, Jhulan, the main wicket-taker in ODIs with 247 scalps in 196 video games, has one other milestone in her sights: the main wicket-taker in Women’s Cricket World Cups.
In India’s opening match towards Pakistan at Bay Oval, Jhulan took 2/26 in 10 overs within the 107-run win to stretch her scalps to 38 throughout 5 Women’s Cricket World Cups since 2005. Ahead of India’s second match towards hosts New Zealand at Seddon Park, Jhulan is now simply two wickets away from overtaking the 39 wickets taken by Lyn Fullston of Australia from 1982 to 1988.
“I’m not conscious of what number of wickets I’ve, however it can be crucial, as a senior member of the facet, to go there and carry out nicely, give an excellent begin, give an early breakthrough. That is my job and I need to persist with my function, that’s the essential factor and should you play a very long time, you’re going to obtain just a few particular person milestones,” said Jhulan in the virtual press conference.
With an individual milestone coming up, Jhulan is more focused on making an impactful contribution for India ahead of the face-off against New Zealand. “That matters, that gives you a lot of joy, but what is important is how you contribute for the team — that’s the most important thing for me and I always believe in that. For me, if I’m doing well but my team is not winning, that is not a good thing for me. I enjoy when I contribute and the team wins.
“I enjoy that more and I want to stay strict in that and individual milestones don’t matter much to me, because I am absolutely a team player and I always try that. I contribute as much as I can and whatever milestones are achieved, I will definitely try to enjoy those. Thank you for letting me know about this. I’m really looking forward for tomorrow’s match, I want to contribute and do well.”
Jhulan additionally identified that the Covid-19 pandemic had introduced a scare of the World Cup being cancelled altogether. The event, which was scheduled for 2021, needed to be postponed by a 12 months as a result of pandemic. Now that the event is lastly occurring, amidst an Omicron scare in New Zealand, Jhulan is glad and grateful for the showpiece occasion up and operating.
“I’m actually glad that lastly we’re in a position to begin, after postponement and Covid. Sometimes it additionally occurred the place I felt that possibly the World Cup gained’t occur, it was such a state of affairs — past our management, however nonetheless we should thank the ICC the place they got here out and are supporting this event and girls’s cricket.
“I hope girls’s cricket advantages lots from this, and I’m very relieved as a result of I assumed, that possibly after a lot arduous work, after ready for 5 years, the World Cup would possibly get cancelled once more. So yeah, it was a terrific feeling taking part in the primary match.”
For now, Jhulan is keen to get on to the field and enjoy the World Cup feeling irrespective of it coinciding with a big personal achievement. “When the first match was over, I realised at night that finally I have come back to the World Cup. Since 2017, I haven’t played any ICC event like in a World Cup kind of tournament. So, it gave me a lot of joy and felt like ‘yes, you have this feeling that behind the back, something is going on’.
“I think I feel that’s gone off because I was waiting for a long time and it felt good. I hope the momentum that we have got, we maintain that momentum and take it forward and whatever we are enjoying, we keep contributing more with enjoyment — and that’s the thing.”
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