ICC Women's World Cup 2017: Everything you need to know

Cricket fans, who were out there cheering for their favourite teams at Men’s Champion Trophy 2017, have another major event to look forward to - the ICC Women's World Cup.

A total of eight teams will be battling it out in England and Wales. The first match will be played at the Lord's on June 24.

Here is everything you need to know:

 

Ladies first!

While men might have been playing cricket longer than women, the first World Cup was held for women. The women’s world cup was first played in 1973 in England. It was only after two years that men played their first world cup in England.

Heyhoe-Flint: The She-power behind women’s cricket world cup:

Heyhoe-Flint was the first female cricketer to hit a six in Test cricket against Australia in 1963. She was the force that kick-started the women’s world cup which was officially inaugurated by Dr Roger Bannister, an athlete-turned-neurologist famous for running a 4-minute mile. 

 

 

There will no group matches:

All the eight teams in the world cup will be playing against each other to qualify for the knock-out stage. The top four teams will be competing for finals.

India has never won till now: 

India's women's team is yet to win its first world cup.  This year, the Indian side led by Mithali Raj is hoping to create history and will be playing against England at Derby in an inaugural match on Saturday.

Indian squad and fixtures:

Squad -  Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Punam Raut, Deepti Sharma, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Ekta Bisht, Sushma Verma, Mansi Joshi, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Nuzhat Parveen, Smriti Mandhana 

Fixtures - June 24 v England, June 29 v West Indies, July 2 v Pakistan, 5 July v Sri Lanka, 8 July v South Africa, 12 July v Australia, 15 July v New Zealand.

DRS to be used for the first time in women’s game

DRS method will be used for the first time in women's game. But, only ten games out of the 31 games will be using this which includes the finals that will be played at Lord’s. This will also have Hawk-eye and Ultra-motion ball tracking.