ANALYSIS
Follow UsAhh sh*t, here we go again!
Recurring mistakes and endless cycles of heartbreak continued in Indian women’s cricket, as Harmanpreet Kaur and her team crashed out of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 in the group stages.
Before the tournament started, skipper Harmanpreet confidently called it 'the strongest Indian side' assembled for the World Cup. Head coach Amul Muzumdar, who’s been at the helm of affairs since the end of last year, also backed his skipper and assured everyone that the Indian team has figured out who will bat at number three — a question which has now taken an existential turn after the fate of the Indian team at the tournament.
Neither did the number three plan work, and there was an enormous dichotomy between India’s strength on paper and their performance on the field.
Not enough preparation
Unfortunately for Harmanpreet and Muzumdar, the obvious fault in their plans was that the Indian team didn’t play any international game between July 28 (when the Asia Cup ended) and October 3 (when the World Cup started).
To compare what that did to them on the field, you need to look at what happened to India in the first game of the World Cup.
New Zealand were coming into the World Cup, having played a three-game T20I series across the world in Australia a week before the tournament began. Alyssa Healy’s women thrashed them; however, they had the preparation they needed, and when they took the field against India on October 4, they were the team that looked more in rhythm and attuned to everything they needed to do to win the contest.
India ended up losing the game by 58 runs after things unravelled in bowling (allowing New Zealand to score 160), batting (102 all out), and fielding (where they dropped four crucial chances) one by one.
That two-month gap also ensured that batters like Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh, who were in great form during the Asia Cup, arrived in Dubai without any rhythm in their game. Moreover, the lacunae already there at number three was being exploited as Harmanpreet was now batting at three, with her slow starts being a characteristic part of her game.
The great Indian batting chaos
Except for the lack of clarity in batting positions, India also didn’t use the batting resource available on the bench in Yastika Bhatia. She could have played against Australia when leg spinner Asha Sobhana got injured, with Radha Yadav replacing her.
An extra batter there, especially someone like Yastika, who has shown how well she can bat in the powerplay in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), would have helped India cushion their inexperienced lower order. Alas, that was not to be, and India fell short by nine runs.
Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil were all supposed to be India’s lower order and help them finish games. However, they have hardly had the opportunity to do that in bilateral, forget big-stake games. That’s why when they were asked to do this directly in big games like Australia, they were found not only short of power but also execution.
If it’s perplexing why India didn’t work on that aspect before, sample the Indian batters’ numbers against spin and pace. Against spin, which has dominated the tournament so far, they have averaged 33.5, the second-best in the tournament, and struck at 116.7, the fourth-best.
However, ironically, they averaged only 11.8 against pace, losing 16 wickets. No other team in the tournament has lost that many wickets to pacers, and only Pakistan women average worse. Rosemary Mair in the first game, Fatima Sana in the second, and Annabel Sutherland in the fourth troubled the Indian batters.
It was almost as if one hole was plugged, the other opened up, and it was all the same yet again.
The two F words continue to haunt India
More than the catching (as India’s catching % is still the second best after New Zealand), the running between the wickets would have hurt India. While the run-outs in the Australia game were glaring, it was the relative ease with which Australian batters ran doubles as compared to Indians that stood out.
On a ground where boundary scoring was tough, doubles became extremely crucial at the end, and the Indian women lacked the fitness to compete with the Australian women.
Apart from that, Richa’s keeping wasn’t the best in the tournament as she gave a lot of byes and catching wasn’t clean enough, especially against New Zealand. Against Australia, India gave away 14 extras, while Australia only gave away eight.
How does the way ahead look like
While the Indian women will be back on the field very soon (from October 24) against New Zealand in a three-match ODI series in Ahmedabad, their captain’s future looks dicey for the next T20 World Cup in 2026.
The 35-year-old Harmanpreet would be 37 by then, and it can be safely expected that Smriti Mandhana would be leading the side. However, it’s the batter Harmanpreet that India needs to account for, as, currently, there’s hardly anyone in domestic cricket who can replace someone of her talent and pedigree.
India need to build their side for both white-ball formats, keeping that in mind. However, for that, they’ll need to play a lot more ODIs as the next ODI World Cup in 2025 will be held in India. Coach Muzumdar should be cautious of that, as India have played the least number of ODIs amongst all the top 10 teams in the current cycle of ICC Women’s ODI Championship.
Will they avoid the same mistake that they made in this World Cup? Your guess is as good as mine!
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