England women to train in Bangalore

Eleven of England's 15-member squad for next year's Women's World Cup will be in India for a preparatory camp. The camp, to be held from November 3 to 12, will be held in Bangalore.

The team will play two 50-over games during their stay, which also includes sessions on how to play spin. The camp will involve general net sessions, including ones for fielding, warm-up routines and yoga.

Charlotte Edwards, England's captain and the 2008 ICC Women's Player of the Year, will be part of the team in Bangalore, as well as Claire Taylor, the No. 1 batsman in the recently-released ICC women's rankings. Coach Mark Lane and assistant coach Jack Birkenshaw will accompany the players. The camp will be a useful boost for the players, since England have no international games scheduled till the World Cup in Australia in February 2008.

Four players from England's World Cup squad - Holly Colvin, Lydia Greenway, Nicky Shaw and Jenny Gunn - won't be part of the camp. Colvin, Greenway and Gunn are playing club cricket in Australia while Shaw couldn't take time off work to attend the camp.

Mark Lane, the England women's coach, said it was assistant coach Jack Birkenshaw's idea to hold a training camp in India. "He thought it would be a great opportunity to do something different and Clare Connor [ECB head of women's cricket] was totally supportive of the trip," Lane told edcb.co.uk.

"It's a really full-on schedule with a couple of games too," he explained. "It will be a fantastic experience for everyone involved. We want to see how they perform under pressure in a different environment. We want to take them out of their comfort zone. They are going to play on slow, low, turning wickets and will learn how to bat against spin bowling and hitting the ball into gaps. That's important as rotating the strike is crucial in women's cricket."

Squad for India camp: Charlotte Edwards, Caroline Atkins, Katherine Brunt, Isa Guha, Lauren Griffiths, Laura Marsh, Beth Morgan, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Anya Shrubsole, Claire Taylor, Sarah Taylor.