Bengaluru, Jun 14 (PTI) Indian women cricket team head coach Amol Muzumdar said an all-format home series against South Africa, beginning with the first ODI here from Sunday, will ensure proper game-time and continuity for his wards ahead of the T20 World Cup in October.
The women’s T20 WC will take place in Bangladesh, and Muzumdar wanted to set the right pathway ahead of the marquee event.
“Yes. That continuity is very important ahead of the World Cup. In this series, we are playing the ODI first and then the Test and the T20s. We then go into the Asia Cup, which is once again a T20 event,” Mazumdar told the media here on Friday.
“By the Asia Cup (scheduled between July 19-28 in Sri Lanka), we should be ready for the T20 World Cup. And then we have a downtime of around seven weeks before we go to Bangladesh. This is a well thought out series and I’m looking forward to it,” he added.
Muzumdar said the team has entered the road to the World Cup during the recent away five-match T20I series against Bangladesh, which they won 5-0.
“We had fantastic preparations in the last eight weeks. We went to Bangladesh and won the series 5-0. We practiced on the same ground where we will be playing the World Cup. So, we had good preparation,” he said.
While the World Cup remains high on their priority list, Muzumdar said the team’s immediate goal was to win the series against South Africa.
“South Africa have always been a competitive side, as this will be a good, hard-fought series. We are looking forward to it,” he added.
The Mumbai stalwart said beyond the tangible target of a series win, the team would like to make further progress in their fielding and other fitness parameters.
“First, we need to win the series. But we will also look into certain aspects. When I took over last December, fielding and fitness were the cornerstone and we have been driving that message to the group.
“They have responded nicely to that. The fielding is a work in progress,” he noted.
Muzumdar expected the Bengaluru pitch to stay true to its character – a paradise for the batters.
“It looked like a typical Bengaluru pitch. We expect good cricket, and hopefully, a good crowd will turn up. We saw that in the WPL,” he said.
Source: PTI News
