Shiv Sunder Das named batting coach of India Women’s team ahead of England tour

Former India Test opener and Odisha player Shiv Sunder Das has been appointed as the batting coach of India Women’s team. The announcement comes after Ramesh Powar was re-appointed as the head coach of the team last week. Das’s first major assignment is an all-format tour to England which is starting in the month of June.

Das has previously worked with India A team and has closely followed the journey of women in blue. He is confident of the players doing well and is hoping to pass on as much knowledge as possible on the seam and swing conditions on offer in England. India will feature in one test a format which they had last played in the year 2014.

“This is the first time I have been assigned a job with the India women’s national team, so it is a quite exciting time for me,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Das as saying. “I am really looking forward to it. It will be a good challenge for me because I have toured England as a player and played a lot of league cricket,” he further said.

“Conditions-wise I am a bit familiar, so it will be nice to add value to the team. My focus is only on the England tour as of now because I have come in for the England tour,” he added.

Abhay Sharma appointed fielding coach

Apart from Das, Abhay Sharma was also appointed as the fielding coach of the team. In the recently concluded South Africa series at home, Indians had dropped a lot of catches and were sloppy, to say the least. In major tournaments like World Cups, fielding is one particular key area and Sharma would be hoping to get the best out of the team.

India and England will kick off the tour by playing a four-day Test match, starting on June 16. Then the teams square-off to play three ODIs and T20Is. Hard-hitting opening batter Shafali Verma is included in both the ODIs and Test squad, while Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia and Ekta Bisht have been recalled after missing out from South Africa series.