Instead, India went down 1-2. They were largely outdone by an inexperienced England team that has an average age of 23 with two teenage superstars in Alice Capsey (18) and Freya Kemp (17). If Kemp took the Indian bowling apart in Derby, Capsey struck 74 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 148. While it is true that the regional contracts and continual backing with investment are the reasons for England producing such talents ready for international cricket, India are still a much better team than their performance across three T20Is.
If the batting performance in the first T20I was a let down, the one in the third was only worse. After the first T20I, they did come back strongly in the second to keep the series, thanks to a Smriti Mandhana fifty. But on Thursday, the top-order once again crumbled to 35/5 before Deepti Sharma (24), Richa Ghosh (33) and Pooja Vastrakar (19) took them to 122/8. With the ball, the spinner tried their best to drag the chase, but England completed it to win the series.
So, what went wrong for India? In the absence of injured Jemimah Rodrigues, their middle-order was inexperienced to an extent, but two batting collapses in three games and several half-chances missed in both the first and the third T20Is did not help them at all. These things could happen on a given day to any team. After all, the key word from the team management through this tour has been to be "patient" and back the players with enough chances to express themselves.
But the most glaring issue for India is how poor they have been tactically through the series. For Sophia Dunkley, a predominantly bottom-handed leg-side strong batter, India had a long-off and a mid-on. On Thursday, apart from the boundaries, almost twice they could have gotten her out at mid-off with leading edges and miscues falling well short. When Renuka Singh, an inswinging medium-pacer, was bowling, India had a third-man behind and Bryony Smith hit her between fine-leg and square-leg fielders who were inside the circle. It seemed like there was no concurrence between the field placements, bowlers' strengths, batters' weaknesses and the plans that were executed. And a year after stressing on creating a pool of fast bowlers to build a better attack, it seems clear at this point that India are heading towards a spin-heavy combination especially in the shortest format.
There were a few positives as well for India from this series. The return of Richa Ghosh, who was left out of CWG without any reasoning, and the performance of Radha Yadav. The former provided the much-needed big-hitting in the middle while the latter was electric on the field and made a significant impact with the ball. Mandhana, Deepti and Sneh Rana did their part as well, but individual brilliance can take a team only so far.
To have a better chance at winning series and trophies — and not just a few matches — the Indian team management might want to take a hard look at the team combinations, batting positions and more importantly on-field tactics sooner than later.