Prema Rawat was in focus as India held their first practice session at Old Trafford in Manchester ahead of their crucial clash against South Africa in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. Following the unfortunate ankle injury to Shreyanka Patil, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament, the 24-year-old leg-spinner from Uttarakhand has been named as her replacement.
Along with Prema, the rest of the squad began the session with an interesting set of fielding drills. The players were divided into three small groups and assigned different exercises across separate sections of the ground. One station focused on reflex catches, another involved one-handed catches with tennis balls, while the third concentrated on boundary-catching drills.
One group consisted of Jemimah Rodrigues, YastikaBhatia, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana. The second featured N Sree Charani, Radha Yadav, Deepti Sharma, captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Richa Ghosh and Prema. The third group included Arundhati Reddy, Bharti Fulmali, Kranti Gaud and Renuka Singh Thakur.
As mentioned earlier, all three groups rotated through the different drills before moving to the nets. Before that, however, Richa had a wicketkeeping session with fielding coach Munish Bali. Deepti was also seen practising in the slip position alongside her.
There were three nets set up outside the main ground. In one, Smriti was batting while Deepti and Kranti were bowling. In another, Yastika was having throwdowns, while a third net had Jemimah and Shafali batting against Renuka, Prema and Charani.
Prema looked impressive in the nets, showing good rhythm and variation in pace. She even managed to beat Shafali on one occasion. Renuka also appeared to be bowling with greater rhythm and confidence, which could be an encouraging sign for India heading into the South Africa clash.
Head coach Amol Muzumdar kept a close watch on the proceedings and was seen having lengthy discussions with Harmanpreet. Bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi was also engaged in several conversations with Kranti and Charani after their spells, seemingly discussing specific lines, lengths and field placements.
Meanwhile, Richa went through her usual power-hitting drills in a separate net on the main ground, where Arundhati and Radha were bowling to her later.
Overall, it was an intense and purposeful training session for the Women in Blue as they prepare for a key encounter against the Proteas Women. With two wins already in the bag, India will be aiming to continue their strong start and register a hat-trick of victories in the tournament.
For latest sports updates: Follow RevSportz
The post Prema Rawat takes centre stage as India prepare for South Africa clash in Manchester appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.
