Bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi on Saturday said India will bring their "A game" against arch-rivals Pakistan in the Women's World Cup, insisting that the team is not taking their neighbours lightly despite a dominant head-to-head record.
While the India-Pakistan clash always generates massive buzz, the contests in the women's game have been lopsided so far, with India enjoying an 11-0 unbeaten record in women’s ODIs.
"The area of focus will be cricket. We want our girls to bring their A game on the day. We want them to take it just as a game because the World Cup is a long campaign," Salvi said on the eve of the clash.
"We have been telling the team to work on their strategies and plans, be clear with whatever you want to achieve, both as a group and individually." With bilateral cricket between the two nations suspended, India and Pakistan only meet at multi-nation events. Salvi stressed that preparation is never an issue.
"There is a lot of information available, footages and patterns on how a team is playing. You can derive plans out of it. We take every game on its merit and prepare with the best possible mindset." India also have enviable bowling depth, which allowed them to rest frontline pacer Renuka Thakur in the tournament opener. Salvi said workload management will continue to be a priority.
"Coming into the tournament, we have around 10 bowling options. It's a long campaign, and we may need the services of any of them. So, whenever rest or recovery is required, we will manage it accordingly." The spin unit, led by seasoned campaigners Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana and Shree Charani, has been one of India’s biggest strengths.
"It's a very good combination with both experience and freshness. They've been playing together for the last three-four series, and the chemistry is really working well for us. Depending on the conditions, we will take a call on which spinners to play,” he said.
"With the kind of options we have, not just the five primary bowlers but also others who have done well internationally, picking wickets as well as maintaining economy, we feel very confident about our attack." The last time India played at the R Premdasa Stadium was during the Tri-series in May, with Sneh Ran being adjudged the player of the tournament.
"Sneh, she had a really good series here in May. So in that series, she was a player of the series, and she picked up a lot of wickets. She's obviously well-versed with the environment at that stage in time, and she brings that confidence into the squad, and she is a quality bowler." "We came here in May. We had our share of understanding the surface. So that was a very good experience playing in these conditions. Those conditions and now the weather conditions are different. But we take it day by day."
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