The Indian women's cricket team is all set to embark on a special journey to the United Kingdom under a revamped support staff for a one-off Test match followed by three ODIs and T20Is.
With the men's and the women's side travelling together to the United Kingdom, it will provide the young girls in the team the chance to interact and learn from their male counterparts on the conditions in England.
In a pre-departure press conference, Mithali Raj said, "Well, yes. I am sure the girls have been interacting whenever they cross paths. It is good to have them around because they have played a lot in the UK, and we can ask them questions, and they can help out because most of the girls are playing the Test format for the first time, so it can really help them if they exchange or talk to them and gain some experience from their talks from their tours."
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After seven long years of hiatus from the format, the Indian team will set foot on the County Ground in Bristol for a solitary test match starting 16th June. The game will be played across four days, a norm for women's Test.
Amid the growing concerns of the pandemic, the team will head into this Test with only a handful of sessions. Despite the lack of practice sessions or warm-up games in this format, coach Ramesh Powar sounded optimistic about the opportunity.
"I think it is not ideal world over right now, and we are trying to look at the bright side. If you look at the bright side, we are playing cricket. Women's cricket is getting their opportunities with Test cricket, ODI and T20; it is a good long tour of 45 days. We, as a team, are thankful to the BCCI for putting up such a tour because it is not easy.
"It is not physically possible to prepare, but I think mental make-up will make a huge difference, and I think my last assignment, we tried that, and we paid dividends. I have done it with the Mumbai team, and we only had six sessions, and we could manage to react positively to the tournament we played, " he said.
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The team were handed their playing kits in a special ceremony ideated by the support staff. Mithali Raj, skipper of the side, offered insights to this ceremony, saying, "I think from a player's perspective, it is just an occasion to make them feel very special about the white jersey and getting into a format which I personally feel is the most challenging, respected and the oldest format, and it has its own charm.
"When the girls who are getting into the team for the first time playing that format, it's very special for them. Unfortunately, I never had this sort of a ceremony way back in 1990, but I think it's good to have it because the excitement is there in the group."
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