Positive atmosphere in team, says coach

Mumbai: Indian women’s cricket team coach Tushar Arothe on Tuesday said that they were travelling to South Africa with a positive frame of mind, despite having lost to the Proteas in the ICC Women’s World Cup last year.

Arothe stressed on the fact that the women’s team were not playing multi-day cricket tournaments like that of the men’s team, and said that they were focused on the upcoming ODIs against South Africa in the rainbow nation.

“We’re not playing multi-day cricket there. Our focus is on one-dayers. Last year, when we went there we finished as champions and on the other hand in the World Cup, we lost to SA which we have to keep in mind.

“We are going with a positive frame of mind to do well,” he said at the pre-departure press conference.

The coach also focused on the importance of training. “Training is very important. What we found in the World Cup were our fitness levels.

“We had a few fitness camps in the month of September in the MCA which helped the girls’ fitness standard. In the Challengers, you must’ve seen the fielding levels had gone up and during this camp, we made some wickets a little bouncier.

“We gave them some target in the training setting targets for 10 overs and the bowlers are also going under different regimes,” he continued.

The Indian men’s team has had a forgettable outing so far, losing the Test series to South Africa after consecutive losses. The women’s cricket team coach, too, stressed on the fact that the team need to acclimatise to the conditions.

“We are preparing ourselves for the tour. Like Mithali said, we need to acclimatise to the conditions, and playing a couple of practice games before the first one-dayer. Even during the World Cup last year, we went early to England. That helped us a lot,” he said.