Indian Women Team Seek Ajinkya Rahane's Guidance Ahead Of Test vs England

The Indian women's cricket team is banking on lessons imparted by men's Test team vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane as it prepares to take on England in a one-off Test here from June 16.

"We have also not played too much of red-ball cricket [like youngsters in our squad]. We have played only two matches. This time we got a chance to speak to Rahane also because he has a lot of experience. He shared his experience with us, like how we should bat and what kind of approach we should have," vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur, 32, said at a media conference.

"We spoke to Rahane] because this is a long format and you should know how to break your innings into parts. I think we didn't get much practice but mentally we discussed a lot of things so that we can prepare ourselves for the match. Even in the nets, we try to stay in a great frame of mind because when you feel great, you play better cricket instead of thinking too much about your batting. We try to play according to our strengths," she said.

The women's team reached Bristol on Monday from Southampton where it spent 10 days in quarantine along with the men's team, which plays the World Test Championship final against New Zealand from Friday.

Harmanpreet, who has played two Tests, 104 ODIs and 114 T20 Internationals, called the chat with Rahane a friendly talk meant to gain from his experience. "It was easy, friendly talk because he has played a lot of Test cricket. He has a lot of experience to share and we got a chance to speak to him," she said.

Harmanpreet lamented that though Indian women don't much practice with red ball as they have not played multi-days format games in recent past, they tried to create match-like scenarios during practice.

"Whatever time we got, we tried to create match scenarios and tried to stay in the best possible frame of mind. We did not get much time to prepare, didn't get practice games. But as players, it is important to adapt to situations as quickly as possible," she said.

"The wickets are totally different [here in England]. The ball swings; we practiced for it in the nets. We have a couple of days to prepare for it," she added. "It is a totally different scenario when you play red ball cricket. As players, it is important that you get used to conditions and whatever is coming in front of you."