Deepti Sharma says plans in place to tackle England

Team setup, batters’ propensity for dot balls, back-to-back defeats and tinkering with the batting order – head coach Amol Muzumdar had to address it all, and some more, after India’s defeat to Australia.

The questions continued heading into the all-important clash with England, though Deepti Sharma had an interesting take on why.

“We did not win against Australia, that is why we are facing so many questions. Had we won it, the small issues we have would have been masked. We have full faith in our team; we are backing everyone,” she opined.

She revealed that the week between games went into drawing plans to tackle an unbeaten England.

“All our practice sessions have involved specific types of bowlers, be it left arm spinners or off spinners, tuned to the conditions and the opponent,” she said.

Tweakers, specifically the left-armers, have been quite prolific in this World Cup. England head coach Charlotte Edwards said that the decision to field two of them in the tournament was a calculated one.

“We knew left-arm spinners would be effective with the tournament in India. We’ve got the best in the world in Sophie Ecclestone. I think she bowled superbly against Sri Lanka. It’d be great to have her back out performing well.”

Charlotte also backed her out-of-form batters, notably Emma Lamb, Sophia Dunkley and Alice Capsey, to come good.

“You can’t go off the back of two games. We want to back the batting order that we have selected because that’s the one we feel will give us success in these conditions.”