Anjum Chopra)
Indian women’s cricket team is yet to win a World Cup (WC) despite reaching the final two times. Former Indian speedster, Jhulan Goswami was part of the campaign on both occasions. Goswami highlighted the 2017 World Cup final loss as the saddest moment of her cricketing career. The 40-year-old also highlighted the difference between the 2005 & 2017 sides in her interaction with Anjum Chopra.
The legendary women’s cricketer announced her retirement from all forms of cricket in 2022. She played her last international game at Lord’s. Goswami’s farewell series will always remain a memorable one for her as India won against England 3-0 in the ODI series. Jhulan participated in 204 ODI matches for India and took 255 wickets.
“No, it couldn’t have been better. Remember 2001, we had gone to England to watch a match. I never thought I am going to play at that Lord’s ground. Both of us played at Lord’s for the first time in 2006,” said Goswami on Anjum Chopra’s YouTube channel.
“2017 was a great opportunity for us. That was a great platform, we played well as a team in that World Cup, but unfortunately in the final at the last moment we couldn’t take the last step and that was a very sad moment,” she further added.
Team India in the recent past has not been able to win against the most successful side at World Cups, Australia. The Asian side lost to the Meg Lanning-led Australia in the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) final, the 2020 T20 World Cup final and the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2023.
Jhulan spoke about the thought process of the Indian team during 2017 World Cup and mentioned the motivating factor behind the Mithali Raj-led Indian side.
“2005, because there were quality players, and sharing the dressing room with them was a great learning experience. 2017 was different, the quality was less but there was a lot of passion, that we have to win this tournament for women’s cricket because we were getting stagnant.”