Long-jumper Murali Sreeshankar’s silver-winning leap at the Commonwealth Games is not just a confidence-booster for India’s track and field athletes, it is also inspiring the India women’s cricket team ahead of their semi-final match against England.

“It gave us goose-bumps... We were watching our long-jumper win silver, that boy was trying so hard. Our job is to go out there and try as hard as he did, he was an inspiration to us,” women’s team head coach Ramesh Powar said.

Powar believes the current women’s team is an evolving side and so different strategies are being tried out. In their 100-run win over Barbados, India promoted Jemimah Rodrigues to No.3 in the batting order and she responded with a 56-run knock.

“We are an evolving team and processes and plans will change. We are trying to get the best out of them,” Powar said. “We felt Jemi is ready for this as she has been playing in England for a while. We thought we will take a chance on her,” he added.

India also brought in Taniya Bhatia in place of Yastika Bhatia, who fearured in the playing XI in the matches against Sri Lanka recently. “When you come into a marquee event, you are ready with the players and all 15 area vailable. It’s not a bilateral where you are trying out a player to see what she can do...we want to use whatever we have in our arsenal.”