India's women set out for Australia

The Indian women's cricket side, led by Mithali Raj, left Chennai on Friday for their one-month tour of Australia and New Zealand. They will play one Test and three one-dayers in Australia and five one-dayers in New Zealand.

The 14-strong team has spent the last nine days in Chennai at the MRF Pace Foundation, and Raj said that they were as ready as they could be. "Batting and bowling are our strengths and the team is in good nick," she said, adding that the pitches at the MRF Foundation were "almost similar to that in Australia."

Indian squad Mithali Raj (capt), Nooshin Al Khadeer, Anjum Chopra, Neetu David, Rumeli Dhar, Jhulan Goswami, Karuna Jain, , Reema Malhotra, Sulakshana Naik, Devika Palshiker, Sunetra Paranjpe, Amita Sharma, Jaya Sharma and Monica Sumra.