She opened up about the areas of improvement ahead of the Women's ODI World Cup 2022.
India women's cricket team captain, Mithali Raj, on Wednesday (January 12), said that they will be looking to fix their combinations in the upcoming five-match ODI series against New Zealand Women for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 to be held in New Zealand in March-April.
She also stressed that the team must be "more consistent" in the areas they worked on over the last 12 months during the five-match ODI series in New Zealand, starting on February 9, ahead of the Women's ODI World Cup, which begins on March 4.
Raj told PTI from Vijaywada: “We will definitely be looking to fix our combinations for the World Cup (in ODIs against New Zealand) and try out a few compositions and also get a little more consistent in the things that worked for us in the last year.”
The skipper further said that India needs more firepower in the middle and lower batting order while mentioning that Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Yastika Bhatia, and Richa Ghosh have done a good job in England and Australia.
She further explained, “The lower middle order contributed in Australia and we would want it to be a little more consistent. And it definitely showed that they have the potential to contribute and all-rounders like Pooja and Sneh Rana have done well in England and in Australia. Richa Ghosh definitely showed that she has the strength and the caliber to sort of go big in those last few overs that we actually wanted someone like that.
She gives us an edge in batting while Taniya (Bhatia) has better glove work - it’s good to have good competition for spots and we have a 5 match to series to try out the combinations. The seamers off course (have done well) but a little more work is needed in the spin department but that is an experienced lot that we have.”
India was able to score in excess of 250 consistently in Australia, and Mithali said the contribution from the lower order becomes even more crucial against top teams, but the top order must score big runs.
Raj signed off by saying, “That's what I meant in terms of being more consistent in those areas because that is what will be crucial in the World Cup when you're playing good sides. Yes, the top order definitely has to perform. But more often you see the matches which are close, you need those few runs from the lower-order. That has been a big takeaway from the Australia series.”
(With PTI Inputs)