India, Australia aim to fine-tune their prep in dress rehearsal that will play out as a prequel ahead of the World Cup.
India, Australia aim to fine-tune their prep for ODI World Cup.
Will any team be able to prepare for the ODI World Cup better than this? Australia gets to play one of the tournament hosts and have an opportunity to get used to the conditions far earlier than other competing teams, while India gets to play the reigning winners.
India will enter this series with a lot of confidence after defeating England in their home ground in July and winning nine of the 11 ODIs they have played this year. But Australia may be a tough opponent; since Harmanpreet Kaur’s spectacular innings in the 2017 ODI World Cup semifinals, they have defeated India in 12 of the 13 ODIs.
In their previous two series against Australia, India was thrashed 3-0. India has lost four of their last five meetings in an ICC tournament, including the T20 World Cup semifinal last year. In addition to using this series as a practice to fine-tune their squad lineup, India will aim to use it to devise strategies for overcoming Australia. India will be the favourites going into the World Cup if they win this series.
In contrast, Australia hasn’t participated in an ODI this year since defeating England 3-0 in the Women’s Ashes in January. The T20I series versus New Zealand in March was their most recent competition. However, they have only lost three of their last 28 games since that competition, and 11 of the players in this squad were also on the 2022 ODI World Cup team.
They will therefore support themselves in order to overcome the rust and get started right away. They will gain from some excellent preparation, particularly against spin in the middle overs, which is anticipated to be crucial in the ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, even though they will be playing in New Chandigarh, a site that is not hosting the World Cup.