Maia Bouchier has voiced her concerns over playing in "scary" Indian conditions later this year, after experiencing extreme heat while playing in the Women's T20 World Cup last year.
Bouchier was part of England's squad for the 2024 tournament, in which she scored 107 runs across four innings before England were knocked out in their final group game against the West Indies. England's group allocation included a day game against Scotland in Sharjah, which Bouchier highlighted as particularly challenging in regard to extreme temperatures.
"When we played against Scotland in Dubai in the 2024 T20 World Cup it was the hardest conditions I’d ever played in," Bouchier told The Next Test, a non-profit organisation seeking climate solutions within cricket. "It was very hard to breathe – I had to breathe through my nose because it was so humid. I came off the field and I couldn’t stand up, I just had my hands on my knees trying to get my breath back. It was really intense, I needed water and sugar, my body felt so drained. It was quite scary. Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who I was batting with, said “I’ve never played in conditions like this in my whole career.”
No player gets above eight in England's T20 World Cup campaign, which was on track before a defeat to West Indies knocked them out.
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The 2024 Women's T20 World Cup was moved to the UAE after unrest in Bangladesh, which had been set to host the tournament for the first time in a decade. In their match against Scotland, England restricted their neighbours to 109-6 before Bouchier and Wyatt-Hodge chased the runs down in 10 overs without losing a wicket.
"Playing above, say, 45 degrees – It is physically and mentally dangerous," said Bouchier. "In the Scotland game, three of the Scottish girls had to go off the field. We started play at 2pm which was the hottest part of the day. It does worry me a little bit that we might have to play in even worse conditions in India later this year."
England will travel to India later this year for the Women's World Cup, which will begin in August. They also toured India in 2023, where they played a Test match in Navi Mumbai in which they were beaten by 347 runs.
Bouchier played all but one of England's games in their Ashes defeat earlier this year. She was left out of their final T20I of the series after a run of low scores across both white-ball series. She was dismissed for 2 and 1 in each innings of the one-off Test match at the MCG.
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