Amol Muzumdar
Credit: PTI Photo
Bengaluru: Indian women's cricket team head coach Amol Muzumdar called the upcoming all-format series against South Africa a 'very good sign' for women's cricket and stressed that fielding was an area of improvement.
India will play three ODIs against the Proteas in Bengaluru from June 16, before playing one Test and three T20Is in Chennai.
"When I took over last December, we had said that fielding and fitness are the cornerstones, and we have been driving that message to the group. They have responded really nicely to that. Our fielding is a work in progress, and we are working very hard towards it. Trust me, you will see some results," the 48-year-old said.
Muzumdar, who oversaw a dominant 5-0 T20 international series win against Bangladesh in his first assignment with the team, praised the scheduling of the series and its preparatory role for the T20 World Cup later this year.
"It is very important few months leading up to the World Cup. All formats is a very good sign for women's cricket. It (South Africa series) is a well-scheduled series. Then we go into the Asia Cup, which is also T20. By Asia Cup, we should be ready for the World Cup," Muzumdar said.
"We have had fantastic preparation (for T20 World Cup) in the last eight weeks. We went to Bangladesh and we had the desired result. We also practiced at the same ground where we would be playing the World Cup," Muzumdar added.
On how his side has prepared to face South Africa in different formats, Muzumdar outlined the role of a split preparatory camp for bowlers and batters.
"South Africa have always been a competitive side, we are looking forward to the series and I am certain that it will be a very competitive and hard-fought series.
"We have had a couple of camps before this series, we had a bowlers camp here at NCA and a batters camp in Navi Mumbai. We had fruitful results from the camp," the Mumbaikar said.
Muzumdar maintained that the ODIs would feature the best possible eleven.
"We have got a 16-member squad, and every member is important. It is not that we are going to try out few things, we will play the best possible combination we can think of for that particular match. It is about getting the combination right in the ODIs. More often that not, we found the best combination in Bangladesh in the T20 format. For ODIs, we would like to play the best possible XI," Muzumdar said.
When quizzed about what to expect from the Bengaluru pitch, Muzumdar offered: "It looks like a typical Bengaluru pitch. We expect some good cricket and we expect some good crowd to turn up at the Chinnaswamy. We saw it at the WPL, and I am sure supporters will come in large numbers."
The second season of the Women's Premier League (WPL) saw a host of players breaking through and stealing the spotlight. Muzumdar was all praise for the league and the leadership of Smriti Mandhana, who led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to victory.
"The last WPL was a massive hit, and it has definitely thrown up some massive talent for the future. Smriti is a fantastic leader. We do have a leadership group in the team and Smriti is a big factor in that. She definitely has a role to play and has a good camaraderie with current captain Harmanpreet Kaur. She is a fantastic leader, as we have seen in the WPL," Muzumdar said.