New Zealand women’s cricket team assistant coach Craig McMillan believes that whichever team handles spin best will win the upcoming Women’s World Cup, which runs from 30 September to 2 November in India and Sri Lanka.
McMillan is currently overseeing a two-week training camp for a 10-player group at the CSK Academy in India, alongside White Ferns head coach Ben Sawyer, at the Chennai Super Kings High Performance Centre (HPC).
Spin has always played a key role in the subcontinent, and according to McMillan, it will be the deciding factor in the global tournament.
“We’ve brought ten players over with the focus on playing spin bowling, because that’s going to be a major emphasis during the World Cup. It’s an opportunity to try and upskill the girls as quickly as we can,” he said at the CSK HPC ground on Saturday.
The White Ferns squad in Chennai includes several familiar faces from the team that won last year’s Women’s T20 World Cup, such as seam-bowling all-rounder Jess Kerr and batters Georgia Plimmer and Brooke Halliday. These players, along with Maddy Green and Isabella Gaze, were also part of the squad that faced India in a three-match ODI series in October last year.
India will go in as favourites: McMillan
New Zealand are the reigning T20 World Cup champions and will be aiming for a rare double by claiming the ODI World Cup title as well.
Speaking about his team’s chances, McMillan said: “It’s going to be a tough World Cup. There are a number of good teams. India, obviously, will go in as favourites, given the team they have and their recent performance in England. The team that plays spin the best is probably going to be the team that goes on to win the World Cup. It’s going to be a big factor.”
New Zealand will begin their World Cup campaign with a match against Australia on 1 October. Their group-stage matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan are scheduled to take place in Colombo.
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