Series against Australia is 'trailblazer' for us ahead of WC: India women's team coach Muzumdar

Mullanpur (Punjab), Sep 12 (PTI) Indian women's team head coach Amol Muzumdar on Friday said the upcoming three-match series against Australia is a "real trailblazer" for the home side going into the women's World Cup starting September 30 in Guwahati.

India will play Australia in a three-match ODI series ahead of the World Cup, starting September 14 here, followed by matches on September 17 and September 20.

"I think this is real trail blazer for the World Cup. This is a very important series for us and we are looking forward to the series, playing against one of the top teams in the world. We had a lovely tour to England, we had positive results which we wanted and we are looking forward for the series," Muzumdar said in a virtual press conference.

"In England we had the results, 2-1 in ODIs and we won the T20 series, first ever result in England as far as T20 is concerned. It was a fantastic 40-day tour. We gelled really well, it was a great tam effort. Smriti (Mandhana) got a hundred in Trent Bridge and Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) got a hundred in Durham." "Everyone contributed and that was the takeaway from the series. Radhya Yadav played a key role, Kranti Goud also contributed. All the boxes were ticked," said Muzumdar.

The coach said the team will have to make a collective effort to shine in the World Cup.

"We have to make huge collective effort to be on the right side of the result." He said India will make most of the opportunity against Australia in the three-match series to prepare for the mega-event.

"Preparation is the same but yes Australia have been a dominant force for so many years but we focus on our preparation and how we gonna execute them," Muzumdar said.

"It's always going to be pressure playing international cricket and these girls are now used to it. We played a lot of home series in the last few years and we are used to the expectations and the crowd pressure.

"As a team, we decide by the game and on the day and the combination will depend on this and we are looking forward to this series," he added. PTI SSC SSC PDS PDS