Ramesh Powar, head coach of the Indian Women's cricket team, reflected on the need to build a strong squad capable of beating any opponent in any condition to win a World Cup.
The Indian women came close to winning a world title twice - the 2017 ODI World Cup in England and Wales, and the 2020 Twenty20 World Cup in Australia, only to finish second-best on both occasions to the host nations.
We are trying to work on our fielding, fitness and take our players to the next level, so that is the immediate goal what we are trying to achieve. Yes, moving forward you want to win World Cups, but it is important you build a squad which can compete in every condition and against every opponent. So this is what we are working on - Powar at the pre-departure press conference ahead of the team's tour of Sri Lanka.
Powar stressed on the need to be more consistent and develop a winning habit.
We are looking at consistency, we are looking at winning habit and for that, I think we all came together as captain, coach, and vice-captain and we already have spoken with the BCCI. We have spoken with VVS Laxman, the head of cricket and there has been a few things going on.
India will be taking part in the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where women's cricket will feature in the T20 format. Powar said performances in the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka will be taken into consideration while selecting the team for the multi-sport event.
We will freeze down to a combination of eleven which will take part in the Commonwealth (Games), so we are confident of walking into the tournament and players will be confident that they are going to play the first game.
The coach also informed that all-rounder Sneh Rana was rested from the upcoming tour to manage her workload.
Sneh has been rested for this series and she is in the NCA working on her fitness. Moving forward, in the FTP that we have, there are about 20-25 T20 games and we want our players fresh for all the series. We want to manage the workload of the bowling unit as well as the batting unit. We are trying to balance it out. As of now, she is being rested and is working on her fitness.
India will next take on Sri Lanks in three ODI's and as many T20s under the newly appointed ODI skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur.
(Inputs PTI)
