Mithali Raj Says Interaction With Sachin Tendulkar Will Benefit All the Players

India women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj said interaction with Sachin Tendulkar before the tour would benefit all the players.

Indian women’s team is all set to tour South Africa for a limited-overs series in the Rainbow nation against the South African Women’s team. The two teams will play three One Day international matches and five T20I international on a month-long tour.

The ODI series will be a part of the ICC Championship match, and both the teams will be looking forward to putting their best foot forward in the series and put a contention for the next World Cup.

The Indian team prepared in the best possible way after spending an hour with the greatest batsman to have graced the cricket field, Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar spent an hour with the Women cricketers and had a pep talk with them before the team left for the rainbow nation.

In the pre-departure conference, Mithali said,

“Talking about the interaction with Sachin (Tendulkar), it was very important for the team as well as the players individually because we got to learn from his vast experience. He (Tendulkar) told us how he handled pressure, failure and things like that. It will benefit all the players to handle different situations in their career,” 

India will play three T20I’s on this tour and will be looking forward to preparing for the World T20 in West Indies later this year. Mithali added,

“We were preparing for the World Cup, a one day format. Once you have a goal and you want to achieve something, your focus is on one format. So now it is a start (of) preparation for the T20 World Cup as we are playing five T20 games. Now, we are preparing for T20 World Cup, but it is an ICC Championship as well, so the ODIs are equally important,” she said when quizzed that they last played a T20 in December 2016. Yes, it’s been a while playing T20 format. As an Indian team, we are looking forward to T20s and need to work hard in this format,”

The Indian skipper also insisted they will not be looking to experiment much with the batting order on tour,

“We do have three new players into the squad. After the World Cup, this is our first tour, so I would not be trying too many things because it is important for the core to get confidence. So I will go in with the conventional batting order so that we get the points because it is important that we win matches,”  

Raj also praised young Mumbai girl Jemimah Rodrigues saying she has scored a lot of runs at the under-19 level,

“Jemimah is a young, talented girl. She scored a lot of runs at the U-19 level as well as the Challengers. She is very promising, and as a captain, my only wish is that she performs whenever she gets her opportunity for the country and herself. Also, she is a very good fielder. In fact, she is amongst the best fielders in the team,”