New Zealand start training in Chennai for Women’s World Cup

CHENNAI: New Zealand’s women’s cricket team, the reigning T20 World Cup champions, have begun training in Chennai as they prepare for the upcoming ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. The team is aiming to win both the T20 and 50-over titles in the same cycle, a rare achievement in the sport, as per the official website of ICC.

Ramping up their preparations for the global megaevent, which is to start on September 30, White Ferns head coach Ben Sawyer and assistant coach Craig McMillan are overseeing 10 New Zealand players in the two-week camp being held at the Chennai Super Kings academy in Chennai.

“It’s currently winter in New Zealand, there’s no cricket, and we’re nearly two months out of the World Cup,” Sawyer discussed the camp’s purpose with ESPNcricinfo, as quoted from the official website of ICC.

“To have that prep time in India, we’ve been able to bring seven contracted players and then three of our players of interest along. So, the girls that we think will play lots of cricket in India in the future as well,” he added.

Among the seven contracted players are seam all-rounder Jess Kerr, young opener Georgia Plimmer and all-rounder Brooke Halliday, whereas Izzy Sharp, Flora Devonshire and Emma McLeod are the emerging players in the mix.

Apart from the cricketing aspect, New Zealand are also looking at ways to get their players to adapt to the subcontinental conditions. The management is taking inputs from High Performance Sport New Zealand and Dr. Kirsty Fairbairn, an expert dietitian, who has worked with White Ferns as well as Black Ferns (the women’s rugby side of New Zealand).

“We’ve actually tried to train really hard the last five days and I guess in a way not to recover, try to just do it naturally and let your bodies adapt to the conditions,” Sawyer discussed New Zealand’s plans.

“And now we’re playing the three games, we’ll try and recover really well. But yeah, we’ve actually tried to expose ourselves as much to the heat as we can,” he noted.

The camp will feature three one-day games, after which there will be one-dayers against England in Dubai and the warm-ups ahead of the Women’s Cricket World Cup (against South Africa and India in Bengaluru), giving New Zealand ample game time in the subcontinental conditions ahead of the event proper.

“It’s hugely beneficial, and even more so this year because we’ve had no official matches since February,” Sawyer added.

“So to get these three one-day games in Chennai, to get two or three games in Dubai against England, a really strong opposition, will be great, and then we also get the two World Cup warm-up games. So that’s seven or eight games we’re going to get in similar conditions. Yeah, that’s just huge for us,” he noted.

New Zealand begin their campaign against arch-rivals Australia in Indore on October 1. (ANI)