Indian women's ODI team captain Mithali Raj and coach Ramesh Powar are seeing the upcoming tour of Australia as ideal preparation for the 2022 ODI World Cup.
The Indian women’s team will play three ODIs, one Test and three T20Is during the tour Down Under. They will depart for Australia on Wednesday (September 1).
"We need to understand that we are playing three ODIs first and we are focussing right now on the World Cup preparation," Powar said during a pre-departure press conference, even as questions revolved around the Pink ball Test against Australia.
"Regarding the one-off Test match we have to carry our one-day confidence into Test match. We don't have to prepare separately as we back our players in all formats. We try to inculcate how we should approach every format."
The tour will begin with the ODI series on September 19. The one-off Test will be played in Perth from September 30 to October 3 while the T20I series will be played from October 7-11 in Sydney.
On the other hand, the women's 50-over World Cup is slated to be held in New Zealand in March-April next year.
Skipper Mithali said, "We know the areas we needed to improve and we worked and addressed those issues during the preparatory camp in Bangalore.
"Whatever results are there in Australia we still have few months for the World Cup. Australia tour is good for us because we are playing against the best, we will also get an idea about the team combination before the World Cup. So Australia tour is a good game plan before the World Cup."
Coach Powar said the team management is keen to bolster the fast bowling department in order to minimize the burden on veteran Jhulan Goswami.
"We are looking for consistency in fast bowling so that Jhulan can express herself, else she will be forced to become defensive and we don't want that situation," he stated.
"We have to have support for Jhulan Goswami, we need to find her a partner so that she can bowl in partnership. We are focussing on Meghna Singh and we are looking forward to Pooja Vastrakar also.
"Once the selectors and team management decide on the final 20-25 players, we stay on the same page when we go into a series," he added.
According to Mithali, pink ball Test is going to be a challenge for the players.
"It is going to be big because most of the questions are revolving about the pink ball than one-day cricket.
"The challenge would be more playing under lights. And also playing with the pink ball as we are all used to the red cherry. We have got feedbacks from the men."
As per recent reports, the Indian team's schedule in Australia might be revised due to the border restriction and COVID-19 lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne.
Asked about it, Powar said, "We are looking forward to a tour which is challenging and we all are excited to go there and put in our best effort to make it a good tour."
(With PTI inputs)
