Sabyasachi Bagchi: After the appointment of Tushar Arothe as the head coach the Indian Women’s cricket team has performed at their best everywhere. Arothe was appointed as coach before last year’s Women’s Cricket World Cup when India toured South Africa. That time the Indian eves performed really well. A few days back they again came back to India after a successful Proteas tour where they won ODI as well as T20I series. Though the Indian cricket team coach Thushar Arothe feels that it was legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s pep-talk which helped the eves to thump Proteas women at their own backyard. In an telephonic conversation with www.xtratime.in Arothe opens up about many sides of the Indian women’s cricket team.
XT: How is your journey till now as Indian women’s team coach?
Tushar: If you want to perform well at overseas, you need to reach there 10 to 12 days prior of the start of the tournament. Ahead of the 2017 Women’s World Cup I told this to the BCCI and we went to England two weeks before the start of World Cup and we got the result as well. We did the same ahead of the Proteas tour. Our girls played two practice games there to get accoustomed with the weather and the pace and bounce of the wicket. This was the main reason for our series win. So if I don’t count the World Cup final, the journey as a coach of the Indian women’s team is pretty good for me.
XT: What did Sachin say to the girls when he came to the camp?
Tushar: Before leaving for South Africa we have had a 7 days camp. Sachin came there to meet the girls. He toured to South Africa various times and he gave valuable tips to the girls how to get accustomed with the pace and bounce there. Now a days the wickets at the overseas are a lot different as they don’t keep a lot of grass for limited overs game. He told the girls to keep the basics right and bat on those tracks with patients and that helped them a lot.
XT: Many havesaid that due to your man management skills the eves are performing so well. How are you enjoying your work?
Tushar: (Laughs) Say women management. You know we have seniors like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami inside our dressing room which helped me a lot. They have performed so well with pride for so many years for the nation but they have zero ego in them. After getting almost everything in their career they still want to learn new things and want to perform better for the side. Beside that they also help their juniors. In this tour we had a lot of new faces in the side, but they performed really well as the environment of the dressing room was so good. I have enjoyed their performance thoroughly in the tour.
XT: Virat Kohli led Indian cricket team performed really well in their last Proteas tour. Do you think that affected the women’s as well?
Tushar: I don’t think so. The boys also could be pumped up by seeing the eves performance there. After our practice sessions and matches we used to watch the games of the men’s team. We are happy that the boys have won two series on Proteas soil as country is first to us. But this is not right that the girls got their boost after watching the performance of the men’s team.
XT: At the end of this year the T20I Women’s World Cup will take place. After getting all this success are you hopeful of doing something good there too?
Tushar: I am very much hopeful. You know we have the combination of senior as well as junior players and the communication between them is the best in the world. I am sure that they will do well in the T20I World Cup as well, but before that we will have to perform well against tough sides like Australia and England.