Developing skills need of the hour for Women in Blue
GUWAHATI: Not many times will one come across a coach of the national team saying that not all the players coming into the side will have the necessary skills to meet the demands of international cricket. A couple of days after India’s stand-in skipper in T20Is, Smriti Mandhana, spoke on the lines of the need to change the mindset of domestic players in order to be competitive, coach WV Raman says the issue is more to do with the skill part.
“First they need to work a lot on their skills,” he said after they lost to England in the third and final match of the T20I series on Saturday. Unlike the first two matches where India at no stage looked in control after the top-order failure, Saturday’s game was supposed to hand them a consolation victory.
The hosts should have won the match comfortably. Chasing 120, at one stage they needed 33 runs from 42 deliveries after Mandhana had laid the foundation with a 39-ball 58. Even though Mithali Raj was at one end, she didn’t get any sort of support and the hosts contrived to lose when they needed just three runs off the final over. It was not the first time that India had lost by a close margin under pressure.
The 2017 50-over World Cup final against England and the final T20I against New Zealand last month are a few instances which come to mind. Asked if bringing a mental strengthening coach is the way forward, Raman said the team should first strengthen its technical base.
“Once the development in terms of skills happens, then all other things come into play because tactically everybody is aware of what needs to be done, but tactics cannot be executed unless the technical base is good enough,” he said.
On the other hand, take the case of England. Kate Cross, who was bowling the final over to defend three runs, made a comeback into the series after last playing a T20I in 2015. She was coming after a good Women’s Big Bash League where she was exposed to high-pressure situations. She performed consistently and was in a better frame of mind. Hence it didn’t matter if she had not played for her national side.
Emphasising the need to work on skills, Raman believes even having a premier T20 tournament to expose the domestic players to high-pressure situations might not be the immediate solution.
“Playing matches is one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is (skills). It is like a student going into an exam extremely well prepared, he is going to walk into the examination hall absolutely confident. Equate it to the skills part of it. As of now, I would rather concentrate on developing their skills.”
India have the talent but a proper system to hone their skills might be the need of the hour. That apart, the team should also take a leaf from England’s depth in fitness and fielding, the ability to convert ones into twos which contribute to winning -- something that even Mandhana agreed to during the series.
With the team not having any tournaments lined-up for the next couple of months, Raman says he has “plans in place” to work towards development. With the T20 World Cup a year away, the road to the global event will not be easy for the Women in Blue.