Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur hail T20 challenge as stepping stone for Women’s IPL

The Women’s T20 challenge starts from May 23 and the final will be played on May 28. Three teams – Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity – led by Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma will lock horns to claim the title. 

The Trailblazers take on the Supernovas on Monday. All matches will take place in Pune’s MCA Stadium. 

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Ahead of the first game of the T20 Challenge 2022, Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur hailed the tournament as the stepping stone for a Women’s IPL. 

The T20 Challenge started in 2018 as an exhibition game. It then expanded to three teams. The 2022 edition will be the last for the tournament. 

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Ahead of Trailblazer’s game against Supernovas, skipper Mandhana said that the T20 Challenge is going to be a good advertisement for the women’s IPL. 

“The T20 Challenge was always going to be a stepping stone for the Women’s IPL. So definitely, whenever it starts, this (T20 Challenge) is a pretty important tournament in that regard. We get to see the kind of talent women’s cricket has in domestic (cricket) and to come out there on the big stage. So in that regard it’s going to be a good advertisement for the women’s IPL,” Mandhana said. 

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The tournament unearthed a talent like Shafali Verma for India. The 18-year-old has scored 700 runs in 29 T20Is, 242 in two Tests and 367 in 15 ODIs. 

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“If we look at the three years that we’ve played these matches, we got very good players like Shafali, Richa [Ghosh], and even Pooja [Vastrakar] tried to prove herself through this tournament. We get quality games and the domestic players get a lot of chances to perform. Maybe this will be the last edition (of the T20 Challenge) and next year we’re looking positively at the IPL (beginning) and that will give more opportunities for the girls to perform. In the last two-three years, if we talk about the benefits of this tournament, the performance of the girls in the T20 team and the improvement of their performances, it is because of these games. This tournament has helped us,” Harmanpreet Kaur said.