India women's head coach Amol Muzumdar has emphasised the importance of "fielding and fitness" as India gear up for a busy few months beginning with the first ODI against South Africa on Sunday in Bengaluru.
"When I took over last December, we had said that fielding and fitness have been the cornerstone and we have been driving that message to the group. They [the players] have responded really nicely to that," Muzumdar said. "Fielding is a work in progress and we are working very hard towards it and trust me, you will see some results out of it."
India play three ODIs, one Test match and three T20Is against South Africa over the next four weeks. Following that, they will head to Sri Lanka for the women's Asia Cup starting July 19 and then travel to Bangladesh for the Women's T20 World Cup which kicks off on October 3.
Muzumdar highlighted the scheduling of the South Africa series as an advantage to be seized upon. "The continuity is very important in the few months leading up to the World Cup," he said, "This series, the format that we are playing is ODI format, then the Test match, then the last one is T20. It is a very well-scheduled series and we go into the Asia Cup which again is T20s.
"By then I think, we should be ready for the World Cup. Then we have a layoff of about seven and a half weeks before we head off to Bangladesh. It is a very well-thought-out series and [we are] really looking forward to it."
India are coming into the series against South Africa on the back of a series sweep over Bangladesh. They played all five matches in Sylhet, the venue for India's group games at the Women's T20 World Cup later this year.
"We have had a fantastic preparation in the last eight weeks," Muzumdar said. "We went to Bangladesh and had a desired result; 5-0 we won the T20 series. We also practiced over there, in the same ground where we would be playing the World Cup. We've had a couple of camps before this series. We had a split camp. The bowler's camp was held at NCA here in Bengaluru and the batter's camp was held in Navi Mumbai. It was a concentrated camp and we had the fruitful desired results for the camp."
Muzumdar was also effusive in praise of Smriti Mandhana, who led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to the Women's Premier League title earlier in the year.
"She is a fantastic leader. We do have a leadership group within the team and Smriti is a big factor in that," Muzumdar said. "Going forward, she definitely has got a role to play. She has a good camaraderie with the current captain Harmanpreet Kaur and we are all working together. She is definitely a fantastic leader as we've seen in the WPL. She has won the title for RCB."