Indian women cricketers begin training ahead of multi-format series

By: WE Staff | Tuesday, 14 September 2021

The Indian women cricket team started training on Tuesday before the next multi-format series against Australia scheduled to start in Mackay from next week.

The BCCI Women official Twitter handle posted some pictures from the training session and captioned the post as: “Prep On ahead of the #AUSvIND series. #TeamIndia.”

India and Australia will play against each other in a multi-format series which comprises three ODI’s, one-off day-night Test and three T20Is with the first ODI on September 21. The Indian cricketers departed for Australia on August 28 and underwent 14-day mandatory quarantine.

India opening batter Smriti Mandhana has also said that her side loves playing against Australia as the ultra-competitiveness of the Southern Stars rubs off on the Girls in Blue.

“We all love playing against Australia, because they are one of the best teams in the world and quite competitive. When it comes to Australia, you’re a bit more pumped because the level of competitiveness of the Australian team just rubs off on us and we also start being extra competitive,” Mandhana told the Scoop podcast, as reported by cricket.com.au.

“Australian wickets have a true bounce and I think everyone loves batting in Australia. No one will tell you they don’t like batting in Australia. We are all just really happy to play cricket, whatever the quarantine period maybe,” she added.

In the finals of the T20 World Cup 2020, India and Australia squared off and Harmanpreet Kaur’s side came up short in the summit clash.

“The team has grown massively. COVID was a big break after the T20 World Cup and a lot of girls had a chance to go back and understand more about their games, where they lack as an individual and come back stronger,” said Mandhana.

“The whole team has worked on their fitness and skills…we are still getting into a rhythm of playing matches continuously but the last five, six months we have been playing cricket and now we are getting back into the match mindset,” she added.