Bates: We can pass fitness test

England women's coach Richard Bates will make maximum use of the playing resources available to him

The fitness levels of the England women’s team will be severely tested when the Women’s World Cup begins in South Africa - but coach Richard Bates is sure his side are up to the tough schedule of seven matches in 13 days during the group stages.

Once the opening match takes place against Australia on March 22, England face a tough schedule of seven matches in 13 days during the group stages.

If successful that will be followed by a semi-final and final and coach Bates plans to make maximum use of the playing resources he has available, hence the decision to take 15 players.

“There was an option to take 14 or 15,” he told ecb.co.uk. “We decided to take 15 and go with plenty of depth in the seam bowling department just to make sure that we can use our squad of 15 effectively.

“We’ll rotate the seam bowlers when needed to make sure we keep people in form out on the pitch and we keep people fresh as well.

“If we try and rely on what we perceive to be the best XI then we’ll fall short and at the end of the day, all 15 are capable of putting in match-winning performances so whichever XI we go with, we’ll be quite confident of performing well.”

Richard Bates has praised the support received from the English Institute of Sport

The hectic schedule means the fitness of the players will be tested and Bates is confident there will be no problems in that area due to the support received from the English Institute of Sport.

He said: “It’s nearly 18 months now that the EIS have been supporting our programme. It started off with strength and conditioning coaching and that has progressed now to where we get physiotherapist, nutritional and performance lifestyle support.

“We get the full package from them, which has complimented the cricket programme perfectly, and we’ve seen a lot of benefits from it in terms of fitness levels.

“We’ve got a few days out there to acclimatise but as soon as we start our one-dayers against South Africa it’s pretty much play, rest, play, rest, all the way through.

“Potentially if we get through to the final we’re looking at 13 games in 28 days so it is going to be a tough schedule and fitness will play a big part from start to finish, especially towards the end of the tournament.

“The girls are far more athletic now, they’re very fit and much stronger and that is showing on the field in terms of their performances.”

All-rounder Rosalie Birch will be a key performer for England

It is not just fitness where the England players have improved in recent years, and their tactical awareness and fielding ability are both areas in which Bates believes important progress has been made.

“I think the girls have really come on in terms of tactics and that is the one area I wanted to focus on when I took over 18 months ago,” he commented.

“I felt we could improve in that area and we’ve had two series against South Africa and one against New Zealand where I’ve built up a decent relationship with captain Clare Connor.

“She’s worked well with me to work with the team and up the levels. We’ve done a lot of talking about understanding and thinking about the game.

“In practice we’ve put ourselves in match scenarios and it’s a bit of long-term planning so that when we come across similar situations in a match we’re a little bit more up to the task.”

England are arguably the best women’s side in the world in the field and have benefited from fielding sessions with Warwickshire batsman Trevor Penney, who has been employed at the ECB National Academy to work with all the England teams.

England women have employed the fielding expertise of Trevor Penney

Bates said: “We sat down last winter and the girls appreciated that fielding is a big strength of ours but we wanted to make sure that we are the number one fielding side in the world.

“We’ve certainly got one of the best - if not the best - fielding coach in the world in Trevor Penney, who also works with the Academy players and the England team. He’s come in and worked with us and has had a real positive effect on the girls, they love working with him.

“He’s got some great ideas both tactically and technically in terms of fielding, and allied to their ever increasing fitness levels means that we’ve got a good fielding unit. Hopefully it will make a big difference.

“The batting and bowling is crucial but over a long period of time some important pieces of fielding might make the difference in some big games.

“The target is to be the number one fielding side in the world. We are a very good fielding side and if there is a team out there which is better than they must be pretty decent.”