Remember the boundary save Ellyse Perry made in the T20 World Cup semifinal against India in February?
Now let’s review: She ran at least 20 yards down the rope while standing on her deep square leg, then hurled herself at the ball while fully extended and pushed it away while in the air. It allowed Australia to win a game by five runs while saving two important runs in the penultimate over.
It’s been four months since India’s terrible day in Cape Town. The women’s squad is getting ready for a new, bumper season that kicks off in July with a limited-overs tour to Bangladesh, then continues in September and October with home white-ball series against South Africa and New Zealand. Then, for a full tour that includes tests on each side of the new year, England and Australia will also be in town.
It’s fair to argue that Perry’s moment of physical brilliance has had a huge impact on India’s approach to fitness and fielding given the number of cricket that they will be playing.
30 “targeted players” were chosen by the senior women’s selection committee in May for a demanding camp in Bengaluru. The introduction of the Athlete Monitoring System (AMS) and Injury Prevention (IP) were the noteworthy highlights.
These technologies are not new. They have been employed by teams in high-performance settings across all sports. It’s interesting that it’s being accepted in women’s cricket in India, beginning with the Women’s Premier League (WPL). The BCCI hopes the measures they have made will help the squad ultimately win that trophy because two major tournaments—the 2024 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and the 2025 ODI World Cup in India—will take place within the next 24 months.
What then is AMS?
Using this programme, injury risks can be reduced and performance can be increased by keeping track of fatigue, sleep, mood, menstrual cycle, and non-sport stressors. Data, workloads, previous injuries, rehabilitation cycles, and performance following injuries are all tracked.
Why does it matter today for women’s cricket?
It has aided the National Cricket Academy in creating roadmaps specifically for each player to maintain the highest possible level of fitness. The one-mile test, a DEXA scan to determine body fat percentage, vertical jumps, wide jumps, 10- to 20-meter dashes, and various endurance exercises have all taken the role of the yo-yo test.
The camp included Vidarbha’s Disha Kasat, one of the top domestic T20 run scorers over the previous two seasons. “Because it was the off season, we went heavy,” she says. “With our runs, with the lifts in the gym. We were taking 50 catches per session even when fielding. All of the participants’ metrics increased over the course of the camp.
Former India captain Jhulan Goswami thinks this new perspective may pave the way for future innovation. As the bowling coach for Mumbai Indians in the WPL, she was able to observe these procedures firsthand. She believes that this will make it easier to catch up to Australia, the undeniable leaders in the women’s game.
On the fitness front, Goswami asserts that there is no comparison to be made with Australia. They have established the bar for women’s cricket, and India may now begin to aim to meet those standards. Players today understand that talents alone are insufficient.
It is only capable of advancing you so far. But staying fit is crucial if you want to advance in your business and your sport. You must have an aggressive mindset and be ruthless. Your level of fitness is crucial for it. With this, perhaps, the T20 World Cup preparations have begun.
The hiring of full-time S&C coaches marks a turning point.
The establishment of a core group of strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches for the women’s setup is a crucial milestone in this fitness transformation. The full-time addition of Anand Date has completely changed the situation. Date has worked with numerous men’s India A and age-group squads over the course of more than a decade, including under Rahul Dravid at the NCA.
As part of her current duties, Date collaborates with a number of franchise S&Cs and other coaches who work with women’s players to help keep consistency in observing fitness.
“Before, we lacked a full-time S&C coach. They were all chosen based on each individual series. According to former India batter VR Vanitha, having Anand Date on board full-time has helped push fitness pedals. “He used to increase the players’ fitness levels once they returned from a trip to the NCA or national camps.
“AMS has made sure that players aren’t over- or under-training. The mapping of each player’s task guarantees that they are held accountable even when they are not present at the NCA. Now, this system is being adopted even by the state teams. The information makes things easier to access.
One component is workload management. There is also injury prevention, a system that identifies certain signals that are then evaluated to adjust workloads through a series of tests on, for example, the shoulders, hip flexors, and hamstrings.
“This system determines the extent of injuries, what the fitness levels of a player are at any given time,” says Vanitha. Even before a player collapses, it keeps track of their physical condition. It basically serves as an alarm for those keeping track. If there are indicators of probable damage, it helps to taper workloads.
The camp’s main objective was fitness, although the players also worked on their skills. They were put through a number of match simulations after being separated into groups and given certain duties. They received assistance from seasoned side-arm bowlers and net bowlers.
“The WPL will bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket,”
According to Goswami, the WPL will significantly affect the women’s game in India. “We didn’t have enough time to prepare for WPL this year. Teams simply followed the herd and chose players based on statistics, according to her. “Teams will have the chance to be ready, hold camps, scout players, and shortlist talents next year. The players will automatically increase their participation in domestic events as they are aware of the increased motivation to be noticed.
“In the past, there was a significant difference between domestic and international cricket. Players thought the gap to be too steep and found it difficult to cross. There is now a sizable platform, therefore this won’t be the case moving forward.
Here, preliminary competitions are quite important. A high-performance team that participated in India’s successful Under-19 Women’s World Cup campaign as well as WPL players are currently in Hong Kong to compete in the Emerging Nations’ Asia Cup. Despite the fact that the majority of the games have been postponed, the tournament had great promise because the last women’s A tour took place before the epidemic.
The Emerging Nations Cup is a nice tournament, but India’s level is far superior to, example, the A teams of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, or any of the other teams, according to Vanitha. “We need exposure to Australia’s and England’s A sides. We also need to broaden our base. Although the Under-19s should be the priority, we shouldn’t
Kasat is an illustration of someone who went above and beyond. The Nagpur-born Vidarbha skipper spends the off-season living in Bengaluru to train with a private coach. Kasat, a former WPL player for Royal Challengers Bangalore, also gets access to the Talegaon training facilities built up by the Rajasthan Royals.
She claims that everything is too simple in Nagpur. “In Bangalore, you can put a price on anything. It might be exhausting to wait in traffic to get from point A to point B. There is a feeling of direction. If I have to travel at least an hour to my training location from my gym, I need to make sure I’m using my time at the nets effectively. Every session should yield some kind of benefit for you. For the past two years, I have lived and studied in Bangalore. Although difficult, it has improved my cricket game.
Kasat had the chance to train with Perry at RCB and saw firsthand how hard she worked. She learned one basic lesson from the experience: “If she can, I can too.”