CHENNAI: After what seemed like yet another close defeat in the Women's Cricket World Cup — this time against Australia — India head coach Amol Muzumdar was sitting at the dais of the press conference room at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Sunday. The first question was about the collapse in the last ten overs, where India lost their last five wickets for 21 runs in 25 balls.
Muzumdar, while acknowledging that India could have added another 20-30 runs, said it was a good batting day and 330 was a challenging total. Then came the question of sticking to five bowlers. The Mumbaikar replied: "Obviously, after this game, we will have a look at it. I am sure the team management will have a proper discussion about this and then we will take the right call as we approach the next game."
A few more queries on the loss and the collapse later, he was asked about the dot ball percentage. Muzumdar said that the team had an "elongated discussion" after the loss against South Africa. "One of the things that was discussed was the dot ball percentage," he said, before adding,"... I thought today was a good display. Yes, the dot ball percentage has come down, but we'll have a closer look at it. Yeah, we would like to get it down," he said when asked about the stagnation that seems to happen, especially when Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol are batting together. Before he signed off, Muzumdar went on to say that they have a settled batting line-up and would not like to tinker with it even though they can be flexible when required. This was in response to whether India could have sent in anyone else in place of Deol after the first wicket.
Watching the Indian team operates from the outside and listening to the head coach after their second loss of the World Cup, it seemed more reactionary than being proactive about their plans on what to expect against stronger opponents in the tournament. It took a loss against South Africa to have an “elongated discussion” about a pre-existing problem, of which there were signs in the lead-up to the tournament. And now, once again, a loss against Australia seems to have led to a discussion about whether five bowlers are enough, especially against SENA teams on good batting pitches. That is despite how that strategy didn’t work against South Africa or even Australia during the bilaterals before the WC.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur too admitted that they will discuss the bowling attack, but reiterated that the plan gave them a lot of success in the past. "We'll sit and discuss [about five bowlers] because this combination has given us a lot of success in the past," she said. "Two bad games are not going to make a big difference for us. Going forward, there are a lot of things we need to sort out, and hopefully we'll come up with the best approach," she said on Sunday.
Yes, India have been successful, but not against Australia — a team they have beaten only twice in 17 ODIs since the 2017 World Cup. And the pressure of a global event is different from that of a bilateral, as seen during the SA game. The issues with the bowling attack have been well recorded over the last three years. Since 2023, India have handed debuts to at least 17 bowlers/all-rounders and that tells the story. Granted, they have had injury issues with their first-choice bowlers, but they haven't helped themselves with their approach when it comes to the bowling attack.
The team management continues to talk about learnings to take from the last two losses before the next game, but that is not an ideal case scenario. In a tournament like the WC, especially at home, they are expected to execute the laid-out plans rather than wait for a mistake to cost them. India have far too many past examples of such losses — including the 2022 WC where they lost to all SENA teams and made an early exit. A repeat of that result could be devastating for Indian cricket, especially after the rise the women's game has seen since then.
India now have to win at least two of their next three games, which include England, New Zealand and Bangladesh, to have a chance at making the semifinals. For that to happen, they will have to take a hard look at their plans and make the changes necessary, rather than waiting for another loss to happen against England in Indore, the coming Sunday. If that were to happen, the road back would be a lot harder than it is now.
