India captain Harmanpreet Kaur has urged the team to carry forward the same energy and intensity exhibited against England as they prepare for the one-off women's Test against Australia starting on December 21.
Following their impressive 347-run victory over England at the DY Patil Stadium, marking the biggest win in terms of runs, India now aim to secure their first-ever Test win against Australia.
Having never beaten Australia in 10 Tests, the upcoming contest poses a challenge for India in terms of fitness and temperament, especially with the back-to-back matches.
"The way we played the first Test (of the season), we want to carry the same energy into this one. It is very exciting, knowing Australia is such a good team and everyone wants to beat them," Kaur told reporters after India's training session on December 20.
Australia will be led by Alyssa Healy in the absence of recently retired Meg Lanning.
She said that Lanning's retirement won't significantly impact Australia as they still possess a strong team.
"They have a balanced side and everyone has experience of all formats. We can't say Meg (Lanning) is not there and take them lightly. We just need to think what best we can do rather than thinking about how good they are," she said.
The India skipper said that although the excitement of playing Test cricket motivates her team, there has been a slight challenge in managing the players' workload.
"When you are playing back-to-back Tests, it is important to recover and feel fresh. When you bat and bowl for three days – the likes of Deepti (Sharma), Pooja (Vastrakar) who didn't get enough rest – we try to take care of their loads," Kaur added.
"They need to feel ready for the game and we made them train accordingly. The ones who had lesser loads we pushed them hard in the nets to feel more confident.”
"The more we feel fresh, the better it will be for us, because there is hardly (any) time to prepare. If there was a 10-12 day (break), you can take 2-3 days off and again prepare yourself. We were lucky we had fourth day off (against England) and then just one day off. We tried to recover in that”, the 34-year-old said.
"We have played a lot of cricket against Australia. We know their weaknesses, we will sit and discuss our game plan accordingly," she said.
Kaur said that the experience gained from competing against Australia and participating in tournaments like the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) would be beneficial for India.
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