CHENNAI: On Friday night, the BCCI announced the India squads for the Asian Games, where they will be making their debut. While the men’s will be a second-string side, it is the Harmanpreet Kaur-led women’s team that raised eyebrows for the players named and left out. And as is the case often, no explanations were given for the same. In the 48 hours since, India have failed to chase 153 against Bangladesh — their first loss against the hosts in the format — in the rain-curtailed first ODI in Mirpur on Sunday.
From the outset, one might wonder about the relation between a T20 squad selection and an ODI performance. However, there is a pattern. The selections, the rotation of players, the roles they have in the playing XI and the tactics. As for selections, in the Asiad squad four players, who were not a part of the Bangladesh tour, have been brought back or called up into the 15, including Rajeshwari Gayakwad who was not a part of the NCA camp as well. And five have been either left out or kept on standby, including the quickest pacer in the squad — Pooja Vastrakar. Renuka Singh and Radha Yadav are injured and Shikha Pandey still seems to be out of favour.
For the Bangladesh ODIs, they had picked Priya Punia on Sunday in place of Shafali Verma, one of the few in the squad who can take on spinners on turning tracks. What's more, the other spin-hitter Vastrakar came in to bat at No. 10. Apart from that, India had eleven players who are a key part of their respective domestic batting units. And yet, as they fell short by 40 runs, skipper Kaur said that they gave away 20 extra runs. “We bowled many loose balls and were not up to the mark. Obviously, in the batting department, nobody took responsibility,” she said after the match.
As for roles, their T20I No. 3 Jemimah Rodrigues batted at No. 5 for the first time in her career. If her wicket all but ended the hopes on Sunday, in the third T20I, they had collapsed after Kaur got out. Through the T20I series, India had used a lot of part-time spin and on Sunday, they bowled 25 overs (of 43) of spin while Marufa Akter, a genuine pacer, ran through the middle-order to hand them their first defeat of this ODI championship cycle. Perhaps, the only positive from the loss was the performance of debutant Amanjot Kaur who took a four-fer.
That being said, the Championship points would seem inconsequential as they qualify as hosts for the next World Cup. India might still come back to claim the series, but this loss should come as a wake-up call as such inconsistencies aren’t going to help when they play England and Australia at home later this year. Nor is it helping to build on the momentum created by the inaugural Women’s Premier League.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 152/9 in 43 ovs (Nigar 39; Amanjot 4/31) bt India 113 all out in 35.5 ovs (Deepti 20; Marufa 4/29) DLS method.