India rewrote the records with a thumping 347-run win over England in one-off women’s Test at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai last week. Riding high on the confidence from registering the biggest win in Women’s Test, India Women’s Cricket Team captain Harmanpreet Kaur urges her side to maintain the momentum as they face the mighty Australia in IND W vs AUS W in a one-off Test at Wankhede Stadium, starting on December 21.
“The way we played the first Test (of the season), we want to carry the same energy into this one. It is very exciting, knowing Australia is such a good team and everyone wants to beat them,” Kaur told reporters after India’s training session on Wednesday.
Now, India sets its sights on a significant challenge – securing their first-ever Test win against Australia. Having never beaten Australia in 10 Tests, this upcoming match will undoubtedly test their skills and temperament, especially considering the back-to-back contests.
‘Cant take Australia lightly’
Australia will be without Meg Lanning, who recently retired from international cricket, and will be led by Alyssa Healy. Kaur believes that Lanning’s absence will make little difference as Australia still boasts a strong team.
“They have a balanced side and everyone has experience of all formats. We can’t say Meg (Lanning) is not there and take them lightly. We just need to think what best we can do rather than thinking about how good they are,” she said.
Although Harmanpreet who has batted for more Test matches for Indian Women, is excited about the prospect of playing Test cricket, she acknowledges the challenges of managing the players’ workload.
“When you are playing back-to-back Tests, it is important to recover and feel fresh. When you bat and bowl for three days – the likes of Deepti (Sharma), Pooja (Vastrakar) who didn’t get enough rest – we try to take care of their loads,” Kaur said.
“They need to feel ready for the game and we made them train accordingly. The ones who had lesser loads we pushed them hard in the nets to feel more confident. The more we feel fresh, the better it will be for us, because there is hardly (any) time to prepare. If there was a 10-12 day (break), you can take 2-3 days off and again prepare yourself. We were lucky we had fourth day off (against England) and then just one day off. We tried to recover in that.’ she concluded.
