India Women training in Vizag ahead of the World Cup to get accustomed at a venue where they play two big games.
Beginning on August 25, India Women will begin their World Cup preparations with a week-long conditioning camp focused on skills in Visakhapatnam.
Since just three players of the squad—Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Sneh Rana—have played at the ACA-VDCA Stadium before, in 2014, the camp’s location is ideal.
India will play two important games in Visakhapatnam: one against Australia on October 12 and one against South Africa on October 9.
In the run-up to their campaign, India’s inexperience at specific locations, such as Visakhapatnam, Guwahati, and Indore, has been a major talking point.
Given that the players have played there frequently in front of large crowds for the past three to four years, both in international cricket and the Women’s Premier League, their inclusion as Bengaluru’s substitute is viewed as a positive move.
The training sessions were originally supposed to be held exclusively in Bengaluru, but they had to be moved because the Karnataka State Cricket Association was unable to obtain police approval to host games at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
It is anticipated that every member of the World Cup team would play, in addition to the reserves and the India A team chosen for warm-up matches.
The camp will culminate with two intra-squad day-night practice matches, before the team flies out to New Chandigarh for the ODI series against Australia starting September 16.
After the Australia series, the Indian team will arrive in Bengaluru to play two World Cup warm-ups, against England (September 25) and New Zealand (September 27) before flying out to Guwahati for their opening fixture against Sri Lanka on September 30.