India captain Mithali Raj and head coach Ramesh Powar on Monday listed out their objectives from the ODI series against Australia and said playing with the mighty hosts is the best preparation for next year’s Women’s World Cup.
Powar, who spoke about the need to play fearless cricket after the UK tour in July, said it is high time that the team starts scoring 250 runs in a row to compete with the likes of England and Australia, which is a record Are on a winning streak of 22 matches in ODIs.
The team also needs to improve in the pace department with veteran Jhulan Goswami not getting enough support from the other end.
“Going towards the World Cup as a group, batting unit, bowling unit, we have set some goals. We want to score more than 250 consistently and we are planning for that.
“In bowling we are trying to get the opponents out, so we are trying to use Jhulan Goswami as an experienced bowler who can give us good openings at the front and senior players as usual, we are trying to get them out. Looking forward to guiding the youth and driving the team that they are. Doing quite well,” said Powar ahead of the first match of the series on Tuesday.
Mithali, the only batsman to score three consecutive fifties against England, said if the other batsmen are performing as expected, she can move from number four to number three in a warm-up game.
“We are definitely looking at the combinations for the World Cup, and we will give the players a little more playing time to fit into those roles, that is our aim in the series, but the main thing is that we are fielding. There are best levels to win every game.
“Playing against the best team before the World Cup is the best preparation we can get,” Mithali said.
On batting at number three, Mithali said, “I have been very flexible about my batting order whether it is number three or number four, but it all depends on the composition of the team.
“If we have a good middle order then I increase my order to three. If there is a little more experience in the middle order, I push myself to No. Now after Harman is out of the first ODI, maybe I will have to think about my order.
Mithali also said that the 14-day quarantine in Brisbane was tough for the players but she chose to look on the positive side and found herself going on with in-room training sessions, Zoom meetings and team bonding activities during which the captain got to know . Apart from his cricket life, a lot more about his teammates.
A lot of bouncers were used by the Australian fast bowlers during practice and India are up for that challenge.
“We have also gathered the input that you know they will use a lot of short pitch deliveries for our batsmen.
“So we have sidearm throwers in the team, so this is where the girls are spending a lot of time playing them, playing more in short lengths and short pitch deliveries.
“There are a lot of cuts and pulls we are working on in our training sessions,” she said.
Powar talks about Shafali Verma’s progress in international cricket and Jemima Rodrigues’s return to form after a forgotten time against England.
“We were happy with the way she played in England and at 17 I think we have to give some breathing space and Mithali, SS Das (batting coach) and we have spoken to her. She knows what is expected of her, so we don’t push a 17-year-old who is very candid in her batting.
“We don’t want to lower his game, but we want to give him the freedom with some more responsibility and the SS plays a major role.
“He has spent a lot of time with Shafali, and he is working on her game, and also on the mental aspects, and she has scored a century. He has got some confidence from England. We can’t forget that she is only 17 years old.”
On Jemima, he said: “She will be and she is part of our plans going forward, and it’s all about the combination. We’re trying to find the right combination for the team going into the World Cup.
“So she can miss (in the ODIs against Australia), she can play too. We’ll take it one match at a time.”
It will be very difficult to beat Australia at home but India is up for the challenge.
“We don’t think about the opponents. If you keep thinking about Australia or England, you will lose your battle in the dressing room, so we don’t think so. We only think about playing quality cricket.”
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