The team that plays spin the best will win the women’s World Cup: McMillan

Former New Zealand all-rounder Craig McMillan, the current assistant coach of the New Zealand women’s cricket team, said that the focus of the 10-player group currently training at the CSK High Performance Centre (HPC) is on batting effectively versus spin bowling, as scoring runs against spinners will be the key in the upcoming women’s World Cup (Sep. 30 to Nov. 2) in India and Sri Lanka.

“We’ve brought ten players over with the focus being 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.

Five of the ten players – Brooke Halliday, Jess Kerr, Georgia Plimmer, Maddy Green, and Isabella Gaze – played against India in the three-match ODI series in Ahmedabad in October.

On New Zealand’s chances of winning the World Cup, he said: “It’s going to be a tough World Cup. There are a number of good teams. India, obviously, will go in as favourites with the team they have and their performance in England recently. 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.”

Speaking about Shubman Gill’s captaincy in the recently concluded Anderson-Tendlukar Trophy, he said: “To me, he looks like he’s gonna be a good captain. He will get better with experience. And he’s the future. So, India will invest in him.

“He will get to know his team’s game, which I think is really important – the style of play. How does India want to play? Under Virat Kohli, everyone knew how India played. They were aggressive. They were at the opposition. That might be a little bit different because of his personality for Gill. But he’s got to work that out for himself with the coach and decide what sort of style India wants to play.”