Mithali Raj wants India to move on from Harmanpreet Kaur as captain

Mithali Raj feels Jemimah Rodrigues is the right person to lead the Women in Blue, not Smriti Mandhana if India Women are looking to move on from Harmanpreet Kaur as their captain.

The latter has been India’s skipper since 2016 and has captained the team in four T20 World Cups. In the ongoing T20 World Cup in the UAE, India lost to New Zealand and Australia and failed to qualify for the semi-finals. 

"If the selectors decide to change, I would go for a young captain. This is the time (to change); if you delay more, then we have another (ODI) World Cup on the horizon (October 2025). If you are not doing it now, then don't do it later. Then it is too close to the World Cup,” Mithali told PTI.

"Smriti [Mandhana, the vice-captain since 2016] is there but I think someone like Jemimah, she's 24, she's young, she will serve you more. And [she] is someone who I feel on the field gets that energy. She speaks to everybody. I was very impressed by her in this tournament.

"Despite playing those cameo roles, she never could convert her starts, but {she is] someone who really made an effort to build a momentum if there was no momentum; and if there was momentum, she tried to carry that momentum [forward]."

Also read - What went wrong for Indian women in the T20 World Cup?

The former India captain said Harmanpreet and Co. failed to adjust to the slowness of the UAE surfaces. India lost to New Zealand by 58 runs but defeated Sri Lanka and Pakistan to stay alive in the competition. Then, against Australia, the Women in Blue failed to chase down 151, falling short by nine runs.

"Surprisingly, we took time to adjust to the slowness of the wicket. Unlike an ODI World Cup, it is a short tournament, you don't have a lot of time to adjust to the conditions. Someone like Sophie Devine was able to score that many runs (57*) against us and she is not used to playing on slow tracks. We were not quick enough to adjust."

Mithali has also not been impressed with the progress India have made in the last three years. The former right-handed batter feels India have been happy beating lower-ranked teams and get exposed when they come up against a team like Australia. Mithali was also not impressed with India’s preparations for the 20-over showpiece event. 

"I feel that in the last two-three years, I've not really seen any growth in this team. In the sense, like, I mean, beating the best side is what you always prepare for, but it seems like we are saturated in the sense we are beating other teams, and we are pretty happy in that. Every other team has shown growth despite limited depth, a case in point being South Africa. We have not.

"I was doing commentary in the Asia Cup. To be very honest, I didn't know what was happening. I'm sure they were aware that Asia Cup is the last series of matches that they're going to play before the World Cup. 

“When you know that this is the last game time that you're going to have before you enter the big tournament, you do at least 70% of your planning or 80% of your planning. Like who your No. 5 or No. 6 is, these are people who would walk in a particular situation. But there it seemed they were playing only for that tournament.

"It didn't seem like it was anywhere closer to... what we got to see in the World Cup. We could have given more opportunities to the bench against lower-ranked teams in Asia Cup, but we didn't. Why does the men's team do well? Immediately after a big series or a big tournament, they try others. If we are talking about depth, then when are we giving them chances?"

Lastly, talking about the fitness levels of some of the players, Mithali said, “Against Australia, I was very disappointed to see, other than Radha Yadav and Jemi to some extent, I don't think there was anybody. So we cannot have just two players out of 11 being good.

"In terms of fitness, we need to have a benchmark. Honestly, how much can you work in a month? It's something that you do around the year. It's not like just before the tournament, you have a camp, and it's just going to really show the difference on the field."

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