Raj, David and Sharma rested from Challengers

International players Mithali Raj, Jaya Sharma and Neetu David have opted out of the tournament to work on their fitness at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. The season-opening Challenger Trophy, which features three teams and includes probables for the Australia tour, is scheduled between September 21-24 in Ahmedabad.

“I have some niggling injuries to deal with,” Raj told Cricinfo. “I didn’t want to aggravate them before the tour of Australia so I have come to the NCA to be monitored by the experts here.”

Raj, who led India in their 4-0 defeat in the ODIs in England earlier this month, said the team will not just have to work harder but also alter their preparations for the Australia series. Sharma, nursing a shoulder injury from before the England tour, is also undergoing rehabilitation. With Raj out, Jhulan Goswami, India’s vice-captain, will lead the India Seniors side, which includes spinners Priyanka Roy and Pujare Seema and batsman Asha Rawat.

Among those hopeful to catch the selectors’ eye is offspinner Nooshin Al Khadeer, overlooked for the Asia Cup and the series in England, who will play under Rumeli Dhar in the India A side. “I honestly don’t know why I was not picked for the earlier tours but right now I am concentrating on the Challenger games after training for three weeks with my bowling coach. This break has made me mentally stronger.”

Nooshin, who needs four wickets to become the third Indian woman to cross 100 wickets in ODIs, said the Australian tour would be tough despite the hosts losing Cathryn Fitzpatrick to retirement last year. “They have very talented young bowlers like Ellyse Perry and the Blackwell sisters are doing well with the bat as well. Last time we toured Australia, we lost the Test and ODI series and after this year’s defeat in England, everyone has to prove their place in the squad.”

Karuna Jain, Anjum Chopra and Preeti Dimri, who weren’t part of the England tour, get a chance to impress the selectors and are part of the India B side captained by Amita Sharma.

India Senior: Jhulan Goswami (capt), Anagha Deshpande (wk), Monica Sumra, Asha Rawat, Priyanka Roy, Pujare Seema, Gouher Sultana, Apurva Kokil, Shweta Jadhav, VR Vanitha, Anureet Kaur, Lalita Sharma, Swaroopa Kadam

India A: Rumeli Dhar (capt), Sulakshna Naik (wk), Tihirush Kamini, Hemlata Kala, Diana David, Nooshin Al Khadeer, Shashi Malik, Niranjana Nagarajan, Pallavi Bharadwaj, Sindhu Ashok, Reema Malhotra, Nitu Jaiswal, Neha Majhi

India B: Amita Sharma (capt), Karuna Jain (wk), Gurdeep Kaur, Poonam Raut, Anjum Chopra, Devika Palshikar, Rajeshwari Goel, Priti Dimri, Snehal Pradhan, Latika Kumari, Amrita Shinde, Harmanpreet Kaur, Archana Das

Raj blames poor preparation for defeat

Mithali Raj, the India women’s captain, has said poor preparation was the reason for India’s 4-0 defeat in England. Raj, who top-scored in the five-match series, said the English pitches were good to bat on and she was unable to explain why the other batsmen folded meekly.

“The girls probably prepared in the same way as they did for the Asia Cup [which India won in May],” Raj told the Hindustan Times. “They were not challenged in the Asia Cup as the other teams were not up to the mark. The fielders too, several of them making their debut, were not tested.”

Raj said the unfamiliar conditions in England posed a challenge to the young side. “Now they know what to expect from stronger teams like England and Australia.” Raj, who scored 162 runs at 81 from five matches, said the England bowlers were not penetrative but, unlike the Indians, they were disciplined.

“England were a much improved side since we played them in the Quadrangular in 2007,” she said, adding that runs had come easily to her because of the way she played. “I read the opponents, know which bowlers to pick, go through their records and study how to get runs off them. The preparations give me an insight.”

India are scheduled to tour Australia in October and Raj said the team will regroup before the series to work on the problems. “We need to work on our opening partnership so the middle order isn’t pressurised. Australia are not tough but they have been in fine nick this season. Once you are in a good run, whatever you do tends to work.”

You’ve come a long way

Nishi Narayanan – On their first tour of England, the Indian women adjusted to the culture shock, washed their own clothes, and fought their own battles.

Imagine Test cricketers, on an international tour as recently as two decades ago, staying at the homes of fans. Shubhangi Kulkarni and the rest of India’s women’s squad did, when they went on their first tour of England in 1986.

Today the Indian women, led by Mithali Raj, kick off their five-ODI series in England. The 16-day tour includes a Twenty20 too. Their practice routine includes swimming, shuttle runs, volleyball and the like. On tours, they stay in hotels and get a daily allowance; each player has a respectable kit. Things were rather different back on the first tour.

The series, over a month long, was India’s first full tour, with three Tests and three ODIs. The players, when not billeted, stayed in dormitories, college hostels, and at times hotels. “Some of us had been to England on a private tour in 1978,” says Shanta Rangaswamy, the allrounder, who now returns to England for the first time since 1986, as the Indian coach. “But this was our first trip as the Indian team, and it was quite an experience.”

There was plenty to get used to, especially for the vegetarians in the squad. “They had a tough time surviving on bread and cheese or salad,” says Kulkarni, who is now the convenor of the BCCI’s women’s committee. “Today we encourage our players to try local cuisine, and I know that before their last tour to India the England players ate curries and Indian food to get acclimatised for their trip here. But at that time we hadn’t thought of doing something similar and nor was Indian food easily available for us on the tour.”

Help was at hand, though, in the shape of fans who had the players stay over at their homes. “We had been told we would be expected to cook our food and wash our clothes when we toured abroad,” Kulkarni says. “But this elderly couple not only got their Indian friends to cook for us, they also washed and ironed our cricket-wear in between games.”

Of course, comparing generations is not a healthy exercise, and changes over a period of 22 years are not news. However, if these pioneering women hadn’t played the way they did – often selling souvenirs and collecting funds to finance their matches – even today’s players may have found themselves knocking on the doors of friendly English folk for food and lodging.

“If we had played badly in our early games, women’s cricket wouldn’t have picked up at all in India, just like women’s football failed to,” says Rangaswamy. Since 1986, there have been six bilateral series between the two sides.

The pitches on the first tour were bouncy but good to bat and bowl on. The three Tests were drawn and India lost all five one-dayers, but some individual performances stood out for the tourists. Opener Sandhya Agarwal set a world record with her 190 in the third Test in Worcester, which followed her 132 in the second Test in Blackpool. “The 1986 tour was Agarwal’s series,” says Rangaswamy. “She frustrated the England players with her slow batting, but performed incredibly well for us.”

India were under severe pressure to not lose any of the Tests, given that there were reports that the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) had told the players they would lose all their funding if they lost a Test. In the light of those reports, India’s complaints about sunlight reflecting off the windshields of cars parked outside the ground were seen as desperate delaying tactics to save the first Test in Wetherby. England were doing well in a chase of 254 runs, and eventually fell short by 25, with five wickets in hand.

Rangaswamy and Kulkarni deny India used delaying tactics. “There was no such mandate from the association,” says Kulkarni, India’s second-highest scorer in the Test series. “We were criticised for our slow over-rate, but the thing was, we weren’t accustomed to the cold, nor had we played any four-day cricket on our domestic circuit.

“The sun was indeed reflecting off the windshields, and by the time we had a car moved, the sun had shifted position.” Cathy Mowat, the England chairman, criticised the team for its tactics, but Kulkarni maintains things never got ugly.

Kulkarni’s most memorable moment of the tour was her maiden century, in Wetherby. “It was the context that made my century special,” she says. “We had collapsed to 114 for 7, and I batted with Minoti Desai and Manimala Singhal, who were making their Test debuts. Minoti got a half-century and Manimala scored 40-odd in our partnership as we rebuilt the innings. It was a determined effort from all of us.”

Away from the field, the players spent their time watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, visiting local fairs in Blackpool, and attending the men’s Test match at Lord’s. “Dilip Vengsarkar had scored a century and some of us made the trip there to watch one day of the match,” says Rangaswamy. Clive Lloyd dropped by to watch the women play as well. “Sunil Gavaskar also wrote positively about us in his column,” says Kulkarni.

Overall it was an ordinary tour, leaning towards the dull side, but it made sure women’s cricket wouldn’t peter out in India. The WCAI didn’t organise any series between 1986 and the 1993 World Cup, and India toured England for their next bilateral series only in 1999. However, the Indian women’s game had survived to enter the new millennium, and the BCCI’s fold, with the promise of better things to come. 

 

England v India (3rd ODI)

England 99 for 2 (SC Taylor 29*) beat India 126 for 2 (Raj 55*, Sharma 42) by eight wickets (D/L method)

England ease to series victory

England took an unassailable 3-0 lead against India with an eight-wicket victory in a rain-hit clash in Taunton, their 11th win in 14 games – the other three producing no result. Large chunks were cut out of the day, in the end reducing England’s task to 99 off 21 overs and they cruised home with 26 balls to spare.

The first spell of action lasted little more than five overs and India managed just four runs. When play resumed Katherine Brunt struck by trapping Karu Jain lbw half-forward, having had two equally good shouts turned down earlier. Brunt and Isha Guha were testing with the new-ball, but the follow-up bowling was less impressive as Jenny Gunn struggled for her line.

However, India never showed any inclination to push the accelerator, plodding along at under three an over. In general England fielded well, but weren’t put under much pressure. Mithali Raj played a neat innings, full of well-timed shots, as she struck her second consecutive half-century. But she too was guilty of not playing a few more shots with the innings reduced to 38 overs.

Rain eventually ended India’s effort early and just relented in time for England’s chase. For such an in-form batting line-up it was never going to be as serious challenge. Sarah Taylor raced out off the blocks with 24 off 17 balls, but it was fitting that Claire Taylor – in her 100th ODI – was at the crease to see the side home alongside Lydia Greenway.

“The bowlers have been superb,” said a delighted England captain Charlotte Edwards. “There are two more games to go and hopefully we can win them both.”

With England’s seemingly unstoppable form, thoughts are turning to the World Cup in Australia during March. This is England’s last cricket before the tournament, but Edwards isn’t thinking too far ahead. “We have just got to keep playing good cricket,” she said. “There are a lot of good teams around and we need to build momentum.”