Goswami hopes familiar conditions work for India

Jhulan Goswami, the India women's captain, believes the team's recent experience of touring Australia will be of help when they return to contest the World Cup in March. India were thrashed 5-0 by Australia in a one-day series last year, a result that took their run of losses to nine. They have not played international cricket since.

"We felt bad. After all, we are representing our country," Goswami told the Hindustan Times. "On the plus side, we now know about the wickets and conditions in Sydney, where we will play our World Cup matches."

On the dismal tour of Australia, India got the chance to play at two grounds that will host World Cup games - the Manuka Oval in Canberra and one at the North Sydney Oval.

Things haven't gone India's way since winning the Asia Cup last year and the batting has been a major area of concern. The squad for the World Cup includes three new faces - Poonam Raut, Harmanpreet Kaur and Sravanthi Naidu. "Poonam is an opener who did well in the inter-state one-dayers, in December. Harmanpreet is a young allrounder who has done well in domestic cricket. Sravanthi bowls left-arm orthodox and came up with big performances against big teams in the national meet," said Goswami.

India, who were losing finalists in the 2005 World Cup in South Africa, had a camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore in January and will have another in Mumbai from February 19-28 before leaving for Australia on March 1.