Isa Guha impressed with the rising quality of women's cricket

Guha played for England between 2002 and 2011, featuring in eight Tests, 83 ODIs and 22 T20Is and picked up a total of 148 international wickets. She played in two 50-over World Cups in 2005 and 2009, the latter England won after beating New Zealand in the final in Australia.

The 35-year-old, who now works as a presenter and commentator, believes that women's cricket has come a long way in the last few years and that the skill level of current players has improved considerably. One reason she cites for the change in women's cricket is the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) which has given an opportunity to upcoming players and helped them showcase their talent.

When asked what she was looking forward to the most in the upcoming T20 World Cup, Guha replied, "Just the skill-levels, I think. Because the WBBL has gone to another level and the skills of people have gone to another level."

"The one thing I love about watching women’s cricket is that the players I used to play against, like Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy... just [love] seeing how they have gone to this unbelievable level of cricket, which I just didn’t think was possible. It has given me the most joy to see how they have developed," she added.

She is also impressed with how her former team has come up. England are currently ranked No.2 on the MRF Tyres ICC Women's T20I Team Rankings and are one of the favourites to win the upcoming tournament. "Good to see the England girls too. They don’t get as flustered by big occasions [anymore], they love the big occasions, which is [good]," she said.

Guha was one of the commentators in the recently concluded fifth edition of WBBL and the standard of play there made quite an impression on her. Brisbane Heat emerged as champions for a second time in a row by defeating Adelaide Strikers in the final, comfortably chasing a tricky total of 161/7.

"I watched the [Brisbane] Heat in the WBBL final and the run chase was conducted so perfectly. They didn’t panic at all, at any stage. That’s always a big step for women’s cricket," she concluded.