The Indian men have crowned themselves in glory in the cricketing world but the women have a lot of catching up to do and it was a fact admitted by Jhulan Goswami in the pre-departure press conference at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
“Our international graph which looks good when we play at home becomes a bit up and down when we go abroad. We need to travel well,” Goswami said.
The Indian women's cricket team captain spoke to the media here on Thursday while her squad geared up for the tour of England that will feature a quadrangular series that has both the Twenty20 and 50-over segments.
The team will leave for London on Friday night and after a few practice games, India will take on Australia in a Twenty20 match at Billericay on June 27. Host England and New Zealand are the other two teams in the fray.
Goswami however remained optimistic and said: “We have prepared well as a team and we were at the National Cricket Academy for close to a month. We first had a camp that focused on fitness and then a second one in which we worked on our skills. We are going with the right frame of mind and we just want to do well in England. Playing for India is the biggest motivation.
Focus needed
“We have three debutants in Veda Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bisht and Shilpa Gupta and they all have done well in domestic cricket. Yes we will miss Anjum Chopra and Rumeli Dhar but this is a good team and we need to focus on the current group. The senior group, that includes Mithali Raj, Amita Sharma and myself, has a bigger leadership role to play."
The skipper and coach Anju Jain parried questions on the team's accent on spin with a diplomatic, ‘it-is-the-selectors-call' line but the duo was confident of the team adapting to the quirky English conditions.
It was a belief that Mithali too shared as she said: “During my last tour of England I realised that the pitches for the limited overs tournament was placid and was similiar to the ones we get in India. The key is to get used to the weather conditions.”
Goswami said that she has always given her best despite the pressures of captaincy and an initial dip in form.
“I felt that I was bowling well but the wickets were not coming. I am confident of doing well in England,” she said besides adding that the issue of central contracts for the women's team is something for the Board of Control for Cricket in India to decide.
“Before all that we need to perform well,” she added.
England tour schedule: Quadrangular T20 tournament, June 23 to 27; Quadrangular 50 over tournament, June 30 to July 7.
The team: Jhulan Goswami (captain), Amita Sharma (vice-captain), Mithali Raj, Snehal Pradhan, Punam Raut, Neha Tanwar, Harmanpreet Kaur, Samantha Lobato (wicket-keeper), Anagha Deshpande, Gauhar Sultana, Priyanka Roy, Diana David, Veda Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bisht and Shilpa Gupta. Coach: Anju Jain.
