CHENNAI: "Number three is something special to us," stated India coach Amol Muzumdar in the pre-departure press conference ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup in Dubai.
It is a well-established fact in white ball cricket that whoever comes to bat one down has an enormous responsibility on their shoulders. If the team has lost an early wicket, the number three has to settle the nerves and create a base on which the rest of the innings can stand. If the openers have provided the base, number three has a responsibility to launch from it to gather as many runs as possible.
Leading into the ninth edition of the marquee event, India has not been able to answer the big question of who is going to take up that role. Since their usual number three, Jemimah Rodrigues, moved down to five, India have given opportunity to multiple players to bat at three.
From Yastika Bhatia to D Hemalatha and Sajeevan Sajana to Uma Chetry have gotten the chance to bat after one of the openers fell. In the last tournament before the World Cup-Asia Cup in Sri Lanka- Hemalatha, Sajana and Chetry shared the duties which showed that the team management was trying to find solutions on the go.
The return of Yastika Bhatia from injury, however, has changed things a bit. The wicketkeeper-batter has decent experience opening the batting for Mumbai Indians in the Women's Premier League and has done well so far. In the five-match T20I series against Bangladesh in April, which was initially looked at as a preparation for the World Cup before the tournament was shifted to UAE, Bhaita batted at number three in one of the matches. After playing in the solitary T20I, The left-handed batter was undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy due to an injury to her left knee. She can definitely be one of the options for India in the Dubai conditions.
"I know for a fact that in T20, the No. 3 sets the game up. We have identified (our No. 3) but we will reveal that only closer to our opening game," Muzumdar had said in the same press conference. Given that, it was expected that India would give whoever they decided to put at three an opportunity during the warm-up game against West Indies. So everyone was surprised when captain Harmanpreet Kaur herself came to bat after opener Shafali Verma fell in the third over. Kaur's knock only lasted for three balls before her counterpart Hayley Matthews sent her back.
Rodrigues batted at four, out of position from her usual number five, however, made the most of her opportunity and scored a half-century. Bhatia, batting at five, supported Rodrigues in a 50-run partnership after India lost a few early wickets. Hemalatha and Sajana did not get the chance to bat. Maybe India have found who they want to bat at three and they will reveal it only with the playing XI on 4th October. By the looks of it, the position is still up for grabs.