CHENNAI: About a week ago, India lost to England in their last warm-up game before the Women's T20 World Cup. Despite the result, where India failed to chase down 172, the biggest takeaway from the contest was one thing and one thing alone — the most important player for their T20 WC campaign was back in form. Richa Ghosh.
Her 36-ball 68, from the outset, might look like just another fifty that did not take the team across the line. However, that knock demonstrated the significance of Ghosh for India to have a chance of winning their second ICC title. And it is not hard to understand why. In a line-up filled with top-order batters, Ghosh, apart from Harmanpreet Kaur, is the only middle-order batter with some experience at the highest level.
That is not an understatement. Deepti Sharma, the all-rounder, has been floated around over the years and has evolved into a middle-order batter in ODIs. But in T20Is, she is still not your designated finisher. Jemimah Rodrigues has been moved up and down, but she is predominantly a top-three batter. And same goes for Yastika Bhatia who is making a comeback.
The only other middle-order batter in the line-up is Bharti Fulmali, who scored 176 runs at 88 average and 157.14 strike rate in the senior women's T20 to make a comeback, but she lacks the experience at the big stage. Enter Richa Ghosh.
Since the beginning of 2023, no batter in international cricket has scored more runs in T20Is while batting at No 5 or lower. Ghosh, in 38 innings, has 740 runs to show in this period with Maddy Green (NZ) and Fatima Sana (PAK) next on the list from full-members. And it is not just the runs, but the pace at which they have come. Among batters (No 5 or lower) with more than 200 runs in this period, Ghosh's 144.53 SR is only third to Phoebe Litchfield (159.89) and Ellyse Perry (150.32). Ghosh's 21 sixes is also the highest on the list followed by Sana's 20.
Taking it all into context, there is no other middle-order batter,when on song, who can destroy bowling attacks like Ghosh can. And the truth is she has always had the potential. The stable base in her stance and the batswing and range to hit any kind of bowler over the ropes. The issue with Ghosh has been temperament and closing matches in pressure situations. In the past, despite coming close, she has gotten out and the team has lost from there. Even in the ODI WC final, she played a cameo but did not see the chase through.
At the same time, over the last three years, she has also become mature, evolved as a batter and the Women's Premier League experience with Royal Challengers Bengaluru helped too. By now, she knows her job is to finish the match and not just play cameos. While acknowledging that the knock against Pakistan has given her confidence, Ghosh threw some light on how Kaur and Smriti Mandhana have helped her in recent years.
"I think in this thing, Harry di helped me a lot. When myself and Harry di batted together, she told me to take my time. There was no hurry to go and strike the ball from the first ball. You take your time and if you stay in the crease, you can score lots of runs. I think I just remember that thing and I just play like that," she said on Tuesday.
"WPL especially helped me a lot because there were different players and different teams. In my team, there was Perry and Sophi Devine. Smriti di was the captain and others were also there. I followed what they were doing, how they approached the match. That's helped me a lot to understand what I can do for the team. I think experience-wise, Perry is good in middle-order. How she plays and finishes it off. Devine in the powerplay, how she powers through. I think that's helped me to understand more how I can plan my game," Ghosh added.
Over the next few weeks, India would hope that all the experience and learnings would come in handy for Ghosh to deliver for India.
