Indian women’s cricket team has tasted quite a bit of success in the last one year. From being the finalist in the World Cup to clinching series in South Africa, the Women in Blue have actually raised the bar.
Now, as it gets ready for a home series against Australia, which is also part of the ICC Women’s Championship — India coach, Tushar Arothe, is confident of a good show.
The seasoned coach believes that the success in South Africa, where the women’s team won the limited-overs series, has given the players confidence and will hold them in good stead when they take on the Aussies in the series starting next week in Baroda.
“This is an ICC-ranking tournament and the team looks positive. Since we have won against South Africa 2-1, the confidence is high,” Arothe tells Sportstar on Monday.
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Moreover, Arothe says India will have the home advantage. “There’s definitely a plus for playing in the home soil and known weather conditions. The players are all focused to perform,” he said.
While the seniors like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami have been the pillars of the team, the side has also promoted youngsters. That is something, the coach feels, has worked well for the team. “The seniors are helping the young cricketers. The team is gelling well, and the juniors also don’t realise that are actually playing with so many big names. So, that is definitely a good thing,” Arothe states.
“With so many young players around, the standard of fielding has also improved,” he also adds.
Ever since conceding the World Cup title in July last year, the women’s team has been seeking the services of a full-time mental conditioning coach, but nothing has happened so far. The coach, however, stresses on the fact that they have been doing regular mental conditioning sessions at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. “When we camp at the NCA, we definitely have sessions on mental toughness. Those sessions have also yielded results, but there has not been any full-time mental conditioning coach yet,” Arothe says.
Meg Lanning-led Australian outfit is expected to give a tough fight, but Arothe feels it will be a hard-fought series. “We have to do well and play good cricket. A series win will be great, but we will have to play tough cricket,” Arothe says.
The last few months have been great for India’s women cricketers, and with Australia coming, they would be hoping to make the most of the home advantage.
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