India women would be hard to beat in near future: Gardner

She considers Australia the best women’s cricket team in the world right now but Ashleigh Gardner is also spooked by the fact that recently-crowned ODI world champion India is well on its way to become a “very hard to beat” side in the coming decade. Gardner, who was a part of the Australian team which lost to India in the Women’s World Cup semifinal last year, said Harmanpreet Kaur and Co Are improving by leaps and bounds.

“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.”

However, Gardner said she still believes Australia is the best team in the world when asked how they processed the defeat to India. “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.

Gardner does not read much into the absence of a frontline Indian batter in Gujarat Giants’ camp for the Women’s Premier League and insists that it won’t come in the way of her side’s push to win the coveted event. While the Giants only have seamer Renuka Singh Thakur from the Women’s World Cup-winning Indian squad in their ranks, they have a star-studded bench of overseas batters in Beth Mooney, Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Sophie Devine to do the heavy-lifting.

“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 said having Renuka by her side in the WPL gives her a lot of assurance.

“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. With the women’s T20 World Cup to be played later this year in England, Renuka said the Indian players will keep working towards the “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 admitted she had to work on her mental strength after the first edition of 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. 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. I still believes Australia is the best team in the world when asked how they processed the defeat to India.