Fielding and fitness were the key issues that Team India worked on ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, revealed captain Harmanpreet Kaur and coach Amol Muzumdar in their pre-departure press conference. However, they recently lost to Sri Lanka in Asia Cup as well.
“We did a lot of fitness and fielding in the first camp; the entire 15 days were delegated to that aspect of the game,” Muzumdar said. “This was specifically done for those two areas where the skills weren’t touched. The next camp was just the skill camp where we focused not just on the net session but we also had almost 5 games in 10 days time. So if you ask for game time, we have ticked that box. And we played some very competitive games. There were different oppositions, there were different skill sets that were chosen for those particular games. So as far as game time is concerned, I think we are on it.”
“We focused on the athletic ability, just to enhance the athletic ability. And we had designed the camp specifically on that aspect. And all-round fielding ability. Some yoga sessions were added, some, you know, psychological sessions were added. Overall it was just a lovely camp. We identified a few areas and we tried to work upon it,” he again added.
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Harmanpreet Kaur, who shared that still feeling as excited as a “19-year-old” for this World Cup, said the squad has worked hard to handle tough situations like the Asia Cup final.
“If I talk about the entire tournament, we played good cricket but had just had that one odd game. Definitely that day, things didn’t go according to the way we wanted. But yeah, there are a lot of areas where as a team, we sat and discussed how we have to go about it. We are working on that and at the previous camp, we tried to see how we can improve if next time these kinds of situations come our way,” she added.
Harmanpreet spoke about having open discussions within the team as part of the mental preparation camp.
“I think this time we tried to, you know, cover each and everything. I felt in the past we had left some small, small things; this time we tried to speak to the coach and Mugdha ma’am,” Harmanpreet said. “When you talk personally, you know what you are talking about and the areas you want to focus on. But when it comes to the team, it is important that everyone opens up so that as a team we can work together and help the player as needed. We had a few sessions where we talked to each other about how we are feeling and how we want to go about it. With Mugdha’s help, there were a lot of sessions after which we felt well and then after executing it on the ground, we felt well. She’s really working hard and so far it is really helping us,” she stated.
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However, Harmanpreet Kaur echoed her coach’s sentiments on the importance of staying flexible with bowling changes in the team as well.
“Look, we have most of the games at night, so dew plays a big, big role,” the Indian captain said. “And, you know, we have good spinners. And at the same time, we have Pooja and Renuka, who are doing really well. So I think when dew is the factor, that time you have to see, you know, who is your best bowler. And accordingly, you know, we will just go there and see who is the best for the team. So right now for me, it’s really difficult to tell, you know, how the pitch is going to be and what spin is going to do there. We’ll just go there and see how the conditions are and accordingly, you know, we’ll see what is the most effective player on a given day and just go accordingly,” she concluded.
