Bat with intent, without inhibitions: WV Raman's message to women's team ahead of ODI World Cup

New Delhi: The Indian women’s team’s ambition to consistently score 250-plus in ODIs could be realised if the players enter a match with the intent to make that many runs even on their off days and bat without inhibitions, feels former coach WV Raman. In recent times, the team management, including coach Ramesh Powar, emphasised on regularly posting scores in the region of 250 and above in the 50-over format if they are to stem the string of white-ball series defeats. [caption id=“attachment_9525531” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of former India coach WV Raman. Image credit: Twitter/@BCCIWomen[/caption] “Go out with the intent that even if we play ordinary cricket we must get 250-260 runs,” Raman said during a virtual interaction. The former India player, who is the first from the country to score a century against South Africa upon their return to international cricket, singled out running between the wickets as one of the areas needing improvement. “You can’t leave it till too late (playing big shots)… what needs to be done is they need to improve on their running between the wickets. There needs to be a lot more urgency in terms of mindset as far as running between the wickets is concerned.” He also believed that the Indians are more comfortable chasing a total in the shorter formats than setting one. “In trying to put up a big score what happens is that if you succeed, opponents are under pressure… When they bat first they have their own inhibitions and they just need to get rid of that. “Batting first if that get in excess of 260, I can’t see them not winning given the quality attack they have.” The Women’s ODI World Cup is scheduled to take place in New Zealand between March and April next year. India finished runners-up to England in the 2017 Women’s World Cup under the leadership of current captain Mithali Raj. Raman coached India to the final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup before being replaced by Powar, who is in his second stint as coach of the national women’s cricket team. The former coach praised the promising Shafali Verma and Sneh Rana. “Whenever Shafali gets time off she works on her some aspects of her game. Now that is phenomenal. Contrary to what some people may think, there is a lot of thought that goes into her cricket. “She is very aware of her cricket. She is going to find ways to overcome why she is getting out to slower deliveries.” He called Sneh Rana a multi-dimensional player and said young wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh is one for the future. The 56-year-old Raman is confident of the team winning the three-match T20I series against hosts Australia beginning in Gold Coast on Thursday. “We have got a very good side, a young side that plays fearless cricket. I don’t see any reason why they cannot win the T20 series.”