Definitely missing a bowling coach: Harmanpreet Kaur
Harmanpreet Kaur opens up on feud with former coach Ramesh Powar
Ramesh Powar shifted to NCA, Hrishikesh Kanitkar named batting coach
Ramesh Powar opens up on injury issues, outlines opportunities for youngsters ahead of the SL-W tour
The 44-year-old is hopeful that the young crop of fast bowlers picked for the Sri Lanka tour will produce results for the team. He also hailed right arm pacer Pooja Vastrakar for her performances in the last six months.
BCCI to back Ramesh Powar for Indian women's team: Sources
Ramesh Powar will continue as the team’s head coach as the former spinner still has a year left as per the contract.
VVS Laxman set to bag a prominent role in Women's cricket as head coach Ramesh Powar's tenure ends
Former Indian batsman and the current head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), VVS Laxman, is likely to get a more significant role in women's cricket after current head coach Ramesh Powar's tenure ended with the World Cup in New Zealand. India failed to qualify for a semi-final of an ICC event for the first time since 2017, and with Powar's current tenure coming to an end, the BCCI is looking to Laxman to chalk out a long-term plan for women's cricket. As per the BCCI provisions, there is no clause for a term extension. So if Powar wants to continue in his role, he'll have to apply for the same again. "Powar's contract was till World Cup. There is no provision for extension. So the entire process starts with applications and interviews. Powar can certainly reapply, and as per the constitution, CAC (Cricket Advisory Committee) will take a call," a senior BCCI source told by PTI. Powar, who was unceremoniously sacked as head coach in 2018 following a rift with skipper Mithali Raj, was awarded a second term last year at the expense of WV Raman. His appointment and the sacking of Raman raised eyebrows, given the fact that the latter had guided India to the final of the 2020 T20 WC, apart from the fact that the former had a controversial past with Mithali. "The CAC takes the call, and if they felt Ramesh would do better than Raman, it was their call. The board can't interfere," the source added further. Powar took over as India's coach last summer. However, his record in his second stint is appalling today, at least as the Women in Blue failed to win a single series in England, Australia, and New Zealand before getting knocked out of the WC in the end league stage. According to reports, two senior players were at loggerheads throughout the New Zealand tour, and Powar did precious little to diffuse the tension. With the inaugural U19 World Cup set to occur last year, the BCCI is determined to carve out a long-term plan to prepare the following world-beating women cricketers. It will be interesting to see if Laxman applies for the head coach position.
If you don't perform you don't get your chances: Powar on Jemimah, Shikha, Punam's omission
India women's team coach Ramesh Powar opened up about the omission of Jemimah Rodrigues and Shikha Pandey from the squad that will feature in the ODI World Cup and New Zealand. The former spinner sent a stern message that if the players don't perform then they won't get their chances. "This is not a one-time communication, it's been for a long period of time, at least last six months. I have been very clear about the roles. I told them specifically what is expected of them. This is a competition, a profession that you're performing. If you don't perform you don't get your chances," he said in a virtual media interaction. Powar further said that the players who have missed the bus have an idea about the same. "Again, the batting unit is consistent with Yastika, Smriti, and Mithali so everyone is consistent so we didn't change much. At the end of it, seven of us getting together and picking the right team and backing the players, that matters at the end. Every player who is not there in the team knows why they are not there," he added.
‘Smriti Mandhana to lead India soon,’ feels coach Powar
Head coach of India’s women cricket team Ramesh Powar feels that India’s star batter Smriti Mandhana is all set to wear the cap of captaincy in the near future. However he said that he was not sure of the format that she will lead to. "We are always looking at her (Mandhana) as leader. She has been the vice-captain and some day she will lead this side. I don't know which format. BCCI, selectors and I will discuss it and decide," said Powar after the Australia tour that ended with India losing the T20 series. He also said that he wasn’t setting any timeline for the change in leadership. "There was no doubt she had the talent. The only thing we told her was to spend time in the middle and she performed very well. We take pride in the way she played in the pink-ball Test as it inspires a lot of girls in the team who look up to her," he added. India lost the ODI series by 1-2 and the only Test ended in a draw. India also failed to win the T20 series and lost it by 0-2. However, Mandhana was the highest scorer of the side on this tour. She scored a magnificent century (127 runs off 216 balls) in the first inning of the only Test played.
AUS W vs IND W | With World Cup in mind, coach Ramesh Powar looks to find fast bowler support for Jhulan
The Indian Women’s team embarked on their tour of Australia after spending a good amount of time in their Bengaluru camp. The team might be playing only three ODIs and the entire focus might be on the one-off day/night Test at WACA in Perth, but coach Ramesh Powar is pretty sure of what he wants. "World Cup is a very important tournament for us and we're focusing on that. If you see only the one-off Test, we can't go in with a mindset of preparing for that,” he said in the pre-departure press conference. But his focus on ODIs doesn’t mean that he or the team is taking the Test lightly. According to the former India player, the team will transition itself from the ODI mode to the test mode and he trusts them to do so. "I think it is about taking the one-day confidence into Test. I'm confident that we don't have to prepare separately for the pink-ball Test. We back our players in the format and they are good enough to react to the situation,” said the coach whose time drew the one-off Test against England Women coming from behind in June this year. Powar, himself a successful Mumbai off-spinner knows that it won’t be easy for the Indian team to adjust quickly and the experience would be totally different for the team. Hence he has focused on making sure that players react to the situation instead of going with a fixed mindset. "The Test in Australia will be slightly different because we will be playing with the pink ball under lights. The experience will be different because we have never played with the pink ball under lights before,” he said. “We don't go in with a set mindset. It's all about how we apply ourselves at that moment,” Powar added further. Another point of focus of Powar is to find a pacer who would share the responsibility with Jhulana Goswami for opening the innings with the ball. Meghna Singh, the Railways medium pacer, and Renuka Singh Thakur of Himachal Pradesh have been drafted into the side as extra support to Goswami Shikha Pandey and Pooja Vastrakar. Powar believes that these new pacers would be tried to get to the composition before the ODI World Cup in 2022 in New Zealand in February. “In the fast-bowling department, we are looking for consistency so that Jhulan can express herself. Because of lack of partnership, she is defensive which we don't want as a team. And we are giving her that support,” the coach said. The Indian Women begin their tour with the first ODI at North Sydney Oval on September 19.
Lot of positives to take away despite the defeat: Ramesh Powar
India women’s team suffered a 2-1 defeat in the three-match T20I series against England on Wednesday but head coach Ramesh Powar has said that the side has a lot of positives to take away. "Fielding has improved, bowling has improved and if you compare to South Africa we have come little ahead and there is a lot of work to be done," Powar said while replying to a query from ANI. Power also lauded Sneh Rana who came back after a span of five years. "Sneh Rana coming back after five years and putting on a show is inspirational. There are many positives, scoring 154 against the top side, we want to score high in T20Is and ODIs (score 250),” the coach said. But the former India player also added that the senior players like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami need assistance from other players to score runs and pick wickets. "We have to have match time, in the fast bowling department there is only Jhulan, there has to be some support to her, then middle overs batting after powerplay in ODIs, that's where strike rotation and little bit conversion from dot balls to runs should be there after you get set," said Powar. "For World Cup in New Zealand we have to have good fast bowlers and the middle overs are where we are trying to get that conversion rate, Mithali is batting very well but she needs support, to get to 250," he added. India lost the final T20I after England chased down a target of 154 runs by 8 wickets and sparing 8 balls to clinch the series. Danielle Wyatt remained unbeaten at 89.
ENG W vs IND W | Coach Powar, captain Mithali commend 'find of England tour' Sneh Rana
Sneh Rana has been one of the finds of for Indian Women’s team on the England tour and coach Ramesh Powar agrees to it. In fact, he went as far as to claim her as the player who could be India’s crisis-manger going into the ODI World Cup and Commonwealth Games next year. Firstly her 80 match-saving runs in the Test and then 24 crucial runs at number seven along with a partnership breaking wicket of Lauren Winfield-Hill in the third ODI that helped India win the last game on Saturday, July 3, made Rana into a charmer of some sort. “I believe Sneh Rana is the find of this England tour,” Powar said in a video uploaded by BCCI on their official Twitter handle. “I am really happy for her. Being an off-spinner myself, I can see the talent and she looks like a player tailor-made for crunch situations. She completes our search for such a player who can soak up pressure when the big matches and big tournaments arrive,” he added. The coach however also confirmed that they were not fairly confident about playing her at first but with her hard work in the nets, she made her way into the team. “The way she was bowling in Southampton, we thought we should give her a chance. It was a difficult decision no doubt, playing two off-spinners in the squad. But she played her role to the core,” Powar said. The coach was not the only one praising Rana. Even Indian skipper Mitahli Raj, whit whom the all-rounder added crucial 50 runs for the sixth wicket, was impressed by her too. She believes that Rana has the potential to become India’s finisher, a player that the national team has been in an eternal search for. “That's a slot we've always looked for somebody who has the shots to clear the field - strong shots all around. And it helps to have a player there who can also bowl. So it's good to have her on the side,” Raj said about her Railways deputy. The Indian skipper also predicted a bright future for the 27-year-old who made comeback into the side after five years having played her first lot of international games in 2016 itself. "She's definitely shown that she does have the character in her to be built into a good player. In the current era, in modern cricket, allrounders play a very important role in the composition of the team,” she said. “I'm sure that she has a bigger role to play for India in the coming years,” she added about Rana who has so far played 9 ODIs, 5 T20Is and a solitary Test for India.
Coach Powar heaps praise on 'role model' Mithali Raj, outlines need for improvement in batting
India Women skipper Mithali Raj has shown over the course of the ODI series against England Women why she is still the number one bet for the country to win the World Cup in New Zealand next year. The 38-year-old hit three consecutive fifties in the series with the last one coming in a stellar run chase. Indian coach Ramesh Powar was delighted by the skipper’s performance, saying she deserved every accolade in the world. “I think she deserves every praise in the world out there. She has been a great server of the game for the past 22 years and she is a role model for a lot of girls out there,” Powar was heard saying in a video uploaded by the BCCI on Twitter. “She won us this game single-handedly. Chasing 220 on a low bounce track is not easy and she still got us over the line,” he added. However, the coach, who was appointed just ahead of this England series, feels that the team’s batting needs to get better if it aims to do well in the upcoming World Cup. “I think bowlers brought us back in this game and we have a lot to learn from this series. Bowling and fielding have improved immensely. Batting has to be up if we are aiming at the World Cup,” said the 43-year-old. Praising the bowling u5nit further, Powar also appreciated the efforts 5put in by senior player Jhulan Goswami inimrp5oving the team. “Jhulan Goswami is one of the legends of women’s cricket and her work ethic, preparations, commitment towards the game, towards the team and the dressing room and young players is commendable. It makes a huge difference to us as a team,” he said. The Indian te5am, having collected four points from a draw in Tests and a win in ODIs would at least look to win the T20I series 2-1 to square up in the entire tour with hosts England who are two pits ahead at six points courtesy their two wins in the ODI series. The shortest format begins with the first T20I at Northampton on July 8.
We are professional enough to move on: Ramesh Powar
Indian women’s team head coach Ramesh Powar has said that he and the skipper Mithali Raj wants to work towards the betterment of the team. “I would like to stop the speculation (on) what is happening. We interacted well, otherwise I wouldn’t have come into the women’s cricket,’ Powar said. “I don’t think we are going to go back on small things where we are professional enough to move on and everyone should move on,” he added. The Indian team will be playing a one-off Test against England during their tour to UK and the former off-spinner has said that it is a good opportunity for everyone to take women’s cricket to another level. “This is a great opportunity for me, Mithali, for the whole group, to take women’s cricket to another level, where the BCCI is supporting us.” Mithali herself emphasised on focusing more on the game and leaving the past behind. “Can we move on from that? Because it has been three years, we are in 2021, we should be looking forward to many more series and if we need to get behind the past,” the captain said. Apart from the one-off Test, India will also play a three-match ODI series and as many T20Is.
We are playing for every single girl who desires to play this sport: Jemimah Rodrigues
India Women’s batter Jemimah Rodrigues was emotional on receiving her test jersey for the first time ever. The youngster after wearing the India Women’s Test jersey, which is always the dream of any cricketer growing up, said that she is more energised than ever to play for India so that she can leave a legacy for the coming generation, the way ladies before her who represented India in Test cricket did. “So today Ramesh [Ramesh Powar] sir called us for a team meeting and showed us the history we have of women's cricket in India - From where it first started to where it has reached today,” Jemimah wrote on her Instagram post. “The one's who were before us that made it possible for us to be a part of what we are today. The one's who did it without the recognition they deserved, the one's who brought women's cricket in India,” she continued shedding light on as well as thanking India’s women cricketers who toiled hard to take the sport where it stands today. The 20-year-old who debuted for India in 2018 was pumped on receiving her jersey from the hands of two of women cricket’s stalwarts in the world Jhulan Goswami and India Test skipper Mithali Raj. “Then the two legends of Indian women's cricket Mithu di and Jhulu di came up and shared with the entire team what cricket has meant to them and what it's like being a part of this Legacy,” wrote Jemimah. Ending her post, the Mumbai born went on to establish the motto of the Indian Women’s team going ahead. “The meeting ended off with this beautiful quote. ‘Our greatest responsibility is to honour those who have been before us and those who will come after, to 'leave the JERSEY in a better place.',” she wrote. The Indian Women’s would play their first-ever Test in nearly four years time when they take on England Women in the one-off Tests at Bristol, which is also their first game of the English tour. Talking about, Jemimha, who has so far scored 1368 runs in 40 T20Is and 19 ODIs combined, said, This series and the series here forth, we are playing for a far bigger cause than what we realise, we are playing for every single girl who desires to play this sport.”