Women’s team working hard to improve fielding: Muzumdar
Indian women’s cricket team head coach Amol Muzumdar has played down the fielding woes that plagued the side in an otherwise impressive title-winning run in the Asia Cup here, insisting that the players are doing everything possible to improve themselves.
India crushed Sri Lanka in a one-sided final by 72 runs on Sunday here to claim the Asia Cup (T20) for an eighth time, but as many as 13 dropped catches in five matches took some sheen off their dominant and unbeaten run.
“Of course, there is scope of improvement. But having said that, we have been fielding really well,” Muzumdar told reporters after the match when asked about the need to improve India’s fielding, after three more catches were dropped in the final.
“We have been working really hard on that aspect. We have put in a lot of hours. A lot of training has gone in. There is scope of improvement in that aspect. But we are putting in all our hard work and honest effort towards improving that,” he added. The Indian head coach also ruled out any concerns around the ordinary show from the middle-order, rejecting suggestions that it has looked brittle with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s form being a concern.
“We have had some lovely scores given the conditions here. I don’t think there was anything regarding the middle-order. We don’t have any concerns regarding that,” he said.
“We have had some amazing opening partnerships; Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana have been batting really well. That’s the nature of the game, you cannot have everyone scoring runs.
“There will be moments in the T20 match and we are well aware of that. The opening partnership has been really good and we finished off really well. We have got (the) scores; 198 was scored in the first game and 160 and beyond in almost every game,” he added.
Muzumdar said India had also worked on their fitness and running between the wickets in the camp held before the Asia Cup.
“In our camps, it’s real hard work that we put in. A lot of emphasis was put on the fielding aspect. The fitness part was looked after really well in the camp prior to this tournament and also the running between the wickets,” he said.
“We have been working really hard on certain aspects where we think there is a lot of scope for improvement. We march ahead. As I said, we don’t get satisfied with any tournament. Once the tournament is over, we look forward to the next one,” Muzumdar added.
