Mumbai, Dec 16: Amol Muzumdar, head coach of the Indian women’s cricket team, revealed that off-spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma is called the “Ben Stokes of the team”.
On Saturday morning, Deepti extended her match haul to nine wickets, taking four scalps in the second innings, apart from making 67 and 20 with the bat, to play the leading hand in India securing a memorable 347-run win over England in the one-off Test at the DY Patil Stadium, thus taking the Player of the Match award.
“You are talking about Stokesy – I jokingly call her as the Ben Stokes of the team. She is fantastic. The confidence she has shown in her batting and the confidence she has gained in these two innings – nine wickets in the Test match and a fifty! She is an important cog in the wheel when she comes (out to bat in the) lower order, bowls crucial overs, and gets wickets,” said Muzumdar to broadcasters after the match ended.
In both of their batting innings, where they made 428 and 186/6 declared, India had a run-rate of 4.09 and 4.52 respectively. Muzumdar stated that there was a plan behind batting with a high run-rate in the Test against England, which they wrapped up before lunch on day three’s play.
“We had thought about playing in a certain fashion as a team and we will continue to do that. It was not planned as a 400-run day. But we had to be positive. Glad that the team responded. And resulted in a good first day.”
“No Test match is easy. But the efforts the girls put in before the Test match – the players who came in five-six days before, we had a nice solid group that was working at the Wankhede Stadium. The preparation was nice, and it resulted in a Test match win.”
With a jubilant feeling of comprehensively winning over England in the Test match, India will be brimming with confidence to prepare for their next Test, against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium starting on Thursday.
“Good signs for Indian cricket. All of them who made their debut (Jemimah Rodrigues, Shubha Satheesh and Renuka Singh Thakur) batted and bowled well. England is a top side but at the same time, these youngsters got a taste of what Test cricket is about,” concluded Muzumdar.
IANS