DUBAI: "Fielding and fitness are of the highest priority,” Amol Muzumdar said on the eve of his first-ever T20I series as a head coach of India. Almost ten months later at the ICC offices, on the eve of his first-ever World Cup match as a head coach of India, he repeated the same thing.
However, India’s efforts in the first match against New Zealand were anything but of high priority. With multiple dropped catches, some fielding lapses, and a bizarre missed runout chance later, India was dealt with a hefty blow right as the tournament started as they lost by 58 runs.
One also needs to understand the fact that India did not get any match practice since their Asia Cup final loss against Sri Lanka in July till the practice match games in Dubai. While the camps and intra-squad matches are welcome, they cannot replicate the real match situations for the players. A long two-month break from competitive cricket did hurt the team, especially in the conditions that take some amount of time to adjust to.
Competing in the so-called group of death, and a limited turnaround time, there is not a lot of wiggle room for the players or management to go through experiments at this level. With the question of who gets to bat at number three was finally answered on the match day, as promised, the result did not go the way India wanted.
The earlier decision to plant the services of Harmanpreet Kaur at number four and Jemiman Rodrigues at number five was made so that they could play their natural attacking game without any restrictions and that did not work for India in the first game.
However, not everything is lost for the side. In what was a disappointing result, India still could look at the positives like the way Asha Sobhana bowled on her World Cup debut, including providing a much-needed breakthrough. Arundhati Reddy, on her return, created many opportunities that could have potentially changed the game for India. While there is nothing to write home about their batting, which folded under pressure, they still have one of the deep batting lineups in the tournament and it will come in handy at one stage. Their next fixture is against the high-flying Pakistan who defeated Sri Lanka to register an unlikely win to start their tournament.
The fixture being a day match does add to the pressure given how draining a couple of days have been in the heat of Dubai, but this is a great opportunity for Kaur's side to let bygones be bygones and focus on the next match because there are no easy fixtures in this group.
Desperate India look to bounce back
After the big loss against New Zealand Harmanpreet and Co will take on Pakistan in the afternoon while West Indies and Scotland search for first points. A look...
Eyes on top-order
More often than not, when India win, it is because of their openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana. When they fail, it opens up all sorts of possibilities and that is not what Women in Blue would want against Pakistan. They will be challenged by Omaima Sohail and Fatima Sana, but it being a day game could be an advantage.
Can Pak break jinx?
While India vs Pakistan makes for television ads, some of them laced with jingoism, there hadn't been much contest between the two in the women's game. Pakistan have won only thrice in 15 T20I encounters but this time they have the momentum. They will have to build on it and bring out the A game to be able to beat India.
Looking to open account
If West Indies went down to South Africa badly, Scotland tried their best before falling short against Bangladesh. In the evening game, both teams will be looking for first points. And Scotland winning here could open up all kinds of possibilities in Group B, especially with the results from Saturday.