India can win Women's T20 World Cup: Mithali

Indian women's cricket captain Mithali Raj on Monday said that her side would look to emulate their male counterparts by winning the Twenty20 World Cup to be held in Sri Lanka in September-October.

"It would be great to win the ICC Women's World Twenty20, the closest we have got to the title is the semi-final stage and we know we have the ability to go further," she said before the India-England Twenty20 International match.

"The fact the tournament is being played in Sri Lanka will help us immensely as the sub-continent conditions are ones that we know and do well in as a team," she said.

Mithali said it would be great to take some ICC silverware home to mirror the trophies won by the men.

"Of course we would love to win the ICC Women's World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, and make the whole of India proud.

"The men won the tournament in 2007 and then won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 so hopefully this time around it will be both the India women and men bringing home the ICC World Twenty20 trophies," she said while posing in front of men's and women's Twenty20 World Cup trophies along with England captain Charlotte Edwards.

Edwards led the England women's team to victory in 2009 and said she wanted to reclaim the trophy the side failed to retain in the West Indies in 2010.

"We had a disappointing tournament in 2010 in the Caribbean and this year is about rectifying that and claiming back the trophy we won in front of our home supporters in 2009," Edwards, the 32-year-old top-order batter, said.

"We've got a new look side that has been working hard over the last year to ensure we've got a good amount of match practice and we're ready for Sri Lanka later this year. We want to be in that final on October 7 in Colombo and ultimately lifting the trophy once again."

Both the men's and women's competitions would be held simultaneously in Sri Lanka. The men's competition will be staged in Hambantota, Pallekelle and Colombo. The women's group stages will be held in Galle.