India 'A' tour: Not many answers to a ton of questions

The white-ball games of the India A women's tour of Australia are done, and the visitors just managed to win a solitary match out of six. Up against an experienced Australia A side that had players with significant Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) experience, the India A women, led by Minnu Mani, expectedly fell short on most occasions in all three departments of the game. 

However, it is the manner of the defeat that would hurt the Indian Women’s cricket setup more than anything else. There was a sense that the beginning of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) and other major developments in women’s domestic cricket in the country had built a solid base of cricketers. Alas, when the time arrived, some serious shortcomings were exposed at both strategy and execution levels. 

Not much to infer for the T20 World Cup

The Indian senior T20I side is in dire need of a solid number three batter who could play at a good strike rate. They had already tried wicketkeeper-batter Uma Chetry in that role in the Asia Cup final. With no international games scheduled before the T20 World Cup in October, she would be the third batter on the team sheet. 

But Chetry batted only once at that position on this tour. She scored 7(9) in the first T20 and never got a chance to bat there again. Even more perplexing was the fact that Kiran Navgire, who was easily the best hitter of the ball for India A in the series, wasn’t given a chance to bat at up the order in any of the games.

In the bowling department, India would have loved to see left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar bowl well and pick some wickets. However, she leaked runs at an economy of more than 10 in the last two T20s and couldn’t influence a single dismissal. Although Saika Ishaque picked up three wickets in the first T20, she hasn’t featured in the senior T20I side lately. 

Sajana Sajeevan, another player who was part of the senior side and would have hoped for a strong performance with the bat, had a poor outing, except for one ODI innings where she scored 40. 

Indian women’s cricket needs more hitters

Except for Priya Punia (112.62), Mani (108.33) and Navgire (158.97), none of the Indian batters had a strike rate of over 100 in the T20s. Among these three, only Punia and Navgire scored more than 50 runs in the series. 

This can be a reflection of two things:

a) Australia A bowlers were really hard to hit and were top-notch (which they were). 

b) India A batters didn’t have the wherewithal to dominate them with the bat (which is also true). 

The second fact should be a big worry for the Indian women’s setup overall, as power-hitting is becoming increasingly common in women’s cricket. The team management and the coaches responsible need to push the players to work on these skills. 

Against teams like Australia which have a very strong domestic depth of talent, that lacunae in their skill set is exposed even further as the opposition’s hard-hitting batters pulverise the Indian bowlers. 

Where are the wickets?

If the Indian batters didn’t perform up to their potential, the bowling was just toothless. Indian bowlers picked only 10 Australian wickets combined in the three T20s, compared to the 23 they lost. 

Except for Priya Mishra in the third ODI, who troubled the Australian batters with her sharp googlies, none of the Indian spinners were able to extract consistent bite from the pitch. The trajectories bowled by them didn’t help, as boundary balls were gifted like Christmas goodies. 

Meanwhile, pacers Meghna Singh and Sayali Satghare were decent in patches but lacked penetration. Hence, the entire Indian bowling attack failed to put pressure on the Australian batting. 

The same issue was reflected in the senior side as well, which cost them the Asia Cup final. Chamari Athapaththu’s women easily defeated them despite India putting up a par score on the board. 

Who were the bright spots?

Navgire’s batting down the order in T20s was a great sign. She scored at a strike rate north of 150 consistently. Indian senior side can actually look to slot her as a finisher or a pinch hitter in their batting order. 

However, the batting pair of Raghvi Bist and Tejal Hasabnis rose like bright stars in the darkness. Bisht, a 19-year-old batter from Uttarakhand, was superb in the List A games and scored 205 runs in three innings, which was the most for any batter across both teams. Hasabnis, who has been a mainstay for the Maharashtra side, also scored 166 runs and was the third-highest scorer in the 50-over games. 

Both batted together in the middle order in all three games and got India across the 200 mark despite early losses. 

Apart from them, young leggie Mishra was quite impressive in the last white-ball game as she picked up a fifer on debut. She is one of the rare leg-spinners in Indian domestic cricket with a strong googly, and she used it to great effect in Mackay. She’s already a part of the Gujarat Giants in the WPL, so look out for her. 

Which failure surprised the most

Shweta Sehrawat is rightly touted as one of the best young batters in the domestic setup. She already showed her capabilities with the bat in the U-19 World Cup in 2023. 

However, she could score only 38 runs in the three T20s at a strike rate of 66.6 in Australia. Her 50-over returns were even poor, managing only 12 runs in three innings.  

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