Mithali Raj stresses on improvement despite impeccable form

The Indian team sits comfortably at the top of the chart in the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup after three dazzling performances from the side. Grabbing all the possible points from the 3 matches, Mithali Raj and her team look in red hot form and are the firm favourites to clinch the title.

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Despite the flawless performances, the skipper believes that the team needs to improve in certain areas before they lock horns with Sri Lanka on Wednesday. Mithali has been worried about the lack of partnerships from her batsmen and is willing to improve on that part.

“We will look into the fact that we don’t lose wickets back-to-back because that puts a lot of pressure on the incoming batters. We need to work on our partnerships as batters.”

As far as the bowling is concerned, Raj looked satisfied with her bowlers and gave credit to the spinners. She also looked happy with the significant rise of the fast bowlers against Pakistan.

“In terms of bowling, the spinners have been doing well, (against Pakistan) the pacers looked better than the last two games so it depends which wicket we play on against Sri Lanka. If it’s a fresh wicket, then we have different plans for it,” she said.

The 34-year-old batsman went on to praise the bowlers for maintaining the pressure and keeping it tight for the Pakistani batsmen. Mansi Joshi was brought into the side for the first time in the tournament and she capitalised on the opportunity in the most appropriate way. She picked up 2 wickets for just 9 runs and made her spell a memorable and effective one.

The Sri Lankans are looking drastically out of form as a unit, losing all three matches they have played. But the captain Inoka Ranaweera preferred to concentrate on the positives. “Our two openers did really well and had a really good partnership at the start of the match against England which is a big thing.”