ICC Women's World Cup: Indian eves hit training drillls in Bengaluru

The Indian women cricketers are busy going through their drills at the pre-World Cup national camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

The camp, which began on December 27th and will be run until January 7th, will allow the players to fine-tune their skills before the 10th ICC Women’s World Cup commences across various venues from January 31st.

The team hit the training session under the watchful eyes of Indian eves coach Anju Jain. The women in blue would look to improve on their third place finish in the last World Cup – the 2008 edition where they upset the applecart of hosts Australia in the play-off match.

The team brings a lot of experience to the table with seasoned campaigner Mithali Raj leading the side and would be making her fourth World Cup appearance.

The batting department has the consistent opener Punam Raut and the likes of Karuna Jain and exciting Harmanpreet Kaur.

The bowling attack is rich on experience with the likes of Amita Sharma and Jhulan Goswami all set to make their third World Cup appearance.

India eves have managed to reach the World Cup final only once in South Africa in 2005 when they were pipped at the finishing line by Australia.

The 2012 hasn’t been a great one for the national women’s team. The team lost a three-match ODI series against West Indies 1-2 in West Indies last February.

The Indian eves continued their losing streak against Australia in a home series in March when they went down tamely 0-3.

The Indian women’s team did put a fighting show against England in their backyard in July but lost the five-match series 2-3.

The Indian eves also cut a disappointing figure at the T20 Women’s World Cup where it finished winless, even losing to arch-rivals Pakistan.

But the team did redeem themselves by the winning the T20 Women’s Asia Cup in China.

The team would enjoy home advantage and should look to exploit this advantage and seek to put up their best-ever performance in the World Cup – win the Cup and surpass the runners-up finish in the 2005 World Cup.

Indian eves would launch their campaign against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium on January 31 before taking on England at the same venue on February 4.

Indian women play their third game against Sri Lanka on February 6 and against New Zealand on February 9 – both matches will be held at the Wankhede Stadium.

India feature in their fifth league tie against Australia at the CCI ground on February 11 before locking horns with arch-rivals Pakistan in their final league tie also at the CCI ground on February 13.

The play-off matches will be held on February 15, while the final will be played on February 17.