The Mithali Raj-led India team will be taking on the West Indies women’s team in a three-match ODI series in Vijayawada from Thursday. The series is part of the ICC Women’s Championship and will impact the team’s qualification and ranking for the 2017, ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup. As they look to keep themselves in the reckoning for the qualification of the all-important tournament, Mithali said that they have been specifically working on certain areas like fielding and fitness. In an interview with BCCI.TV, the skipper discussed her team and analysed the competition.

How crucial is the series for India? The series is important in terms of gaining points because that will help us to get into the top four and we won’t have to play the qualifiers, but again we are competing against one of the top teams, West Indies. It is not going to be easy. It will definitely be an exciting series, but at the same time, it is important that all of us need to regroup and play as a unit because these points are very important for us and the win in the series will give us lot of confidence getting into the main event that’s the, World Cup next year. Also, it gives a lot of confidence if we do well in these matches to compete against the best sides in this format. What are the areas that the team has been working on since assembling in Vijayawada? Since we are playing a one-day series after a few months’ gap (played last in February against Sri Lanka) it is important for the girls need to get in to the rhythm of the format, and secondly we need to work more on our fielding department because that was something that has been talked about. Also, the batting lineup (needs to work out) because we need to get more runs on the board to give the bowlers enough runs to get us the wickets. What kind of work is being done regarding fielding? Has there been more focus on fitness? We had a camp at the NCA (National Cricket Academy in Bangalore) just before the domestic matches. And this time around, the BCCI has given us a fielding coach (Suman Sharma) so that the team works exclusively on the fielding department as well going forward. Also, some of the girls have done very well on the domestic circuit in terms of batting as well as bowling. How do you assess the opposition? I have always rated West Indies more of a T20 team because they are very strong and very apt in terms of the shorter format. But the one-day format is completely different to the T20 where you have enough time to come back into the game as well. Also, even the lower-order batters (can contribute) or part-time bowlers can get you a wicket and get the game to twist. One day format is completely different to T20. West Indies might struggle a bit in terms of playing this format because they might not have that much of an experience of playing the one-day format. I have been following their last series with the England team and they were pretty much low scoring matches and not many players who are known very much in T20 format were able to score runs. I have done the homework before the series, but then again having said that this is a different place to play, we are playing in Vijayawada. The wicket is very good. It is a little bit on the slower side but it is good for the one-day format because it will survive for all the 100 overs. It gives optimum opportunity for the batters to score heaps of runs and maybe it has little bit for the bowlers too.

What are the lessons learnt from the one-day series earlier in the year? We have played Australia, one of the best sides in this format and playing them at their home was very challenging for the girls because obviously for the kind of wickets which we played on and also the kind of team that the Australians are they never give anything easily. So, we had to play out of our skins some exceptional performances from our side as well, Smriti (Mandhana) got a hundred. All those three matches were high-scoring games. In the last game, we tried and chased 230 odd runs so it shows that the batting is shaping well, it is just that we need to be consistent in piling up huge scores so that the bowlers have some scope to get wickets. Because if you are scoring 150-160 runs, it is not a total that the bowlers can defend in every game, maybe one odd game but not every game so I guess we have a very good bowling attack. We need to work more on piling up big scores. Women’s cricket over all should be looked up to it is just not 170 or 180-run game, but women’s cricket now looks up to 240-250 runs and that becomes more competitive. We will try and attract more people in an around this city to come and watch the game because that’s how we popularise games in these cities. How important was playing domestic one-day tournaments ahead of the series? It was important. For starters, we played the one-day series after a gap. It was now played after the World T20 and everyone was pretty much in the mould of T20 format, so it was important in terms of again getting back to the one-day format. It may not match the international standards, but yes playing domestic matches players can gain confidence. By scoring runs and getting wickets we come into the confidence belt and that plays a huge role when you compete at the international level. How differently do you prepare for one-day vis a vis T20 matches? In the T20 format players the usually have pre-determined thoughts as how to play certain shots. They prepare and try and work on certain shots or certain deliveries. Whereas in one-day format, you have time to build your innings, you have time as a bowler to work on taking wickets, you can purchase wickets in the one-dayers as well, which you can’t in the T20 format.