By Milly McEvoy, Sportsbeat
Going into the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025 as defending champions could have put pressure on Niki Prasad, but the new captain of the maiden winners is shouldering the responsibility as she and her team aim to retain the trophy.
In fact, when asked how the team would keep their feet on the ground after a dominant opening win against the West Indies, Prasad was more concerned about how they would keep winning until the very end.
“As champions last time, we come in with that confidence,” she said.
“And we’re here to win, so that’s what we’ll try to do every game.”
“Playing tournaments like the Women’s Premier League and the Challenger Trophy gives you a lot of confidence when you get scores or when you get wickets, then you are confident enough to come here and show what you can do.”
Only three players returned from the 2023 title-winning squad, but the new faces were unfazed by the occasion.
A trio of bowlers put West Indies on their backs, with seamer VJ Joshitha setting the tone with two wickets in both balls.
Aayushi Shukla contributed two vital wickets at important times while conceding just six runs from her four overs and contributing to Abigail Bryce’s runout.
Fellow left-arm spinner Parunika Sisodia took three wickets for just seven runs to bowl out West Indies for 44 runs.
Joshitha said: “It’s a wonderful start for us, the team really supported me so I felt confident to play.
“I’m looking for more swing with the ball, I have good speed so I like to swing it. I like Bhuvenshwar Kumar, I like his action so I tried to copy that.
This team support could be felt and heard at all times through the players speaking on the field.
The aim was to stay sharp, which worked as India created three runs during the Windies’ innings.
Beating the West Indies in 13.2 overs gave India just enough time to reach their target of 55 runs before the rain started falling heavily.
As Sisodia said, everything worked out perfectly for them.
She explained: “Our plans were quite simple, given the conditions and the weather we decided that if we won the toss we were going to bowl first because the weather is good for bowling and that’s what our team did.
“For me there were very simple plans, just play up front and let the ball do the work because we were already in a very good position and the weather made it quite difficult for the batters to hit.
“We always look forward to playing a game, expressing ourselves and everything comes together.”