"I can say that this is the best team we are going for a T20 World Cup with," India captain Harmanpreet Kaur had said in a pre-departure press conference ahead of the T20 World Cup with Neetu David, Chairperson, Women’s Selection Committee and Amol Muzumdar, Head Coach of Indian team sitting next to her. It made sense because, at least on paper, India had all of their bases covered.
Exactly three weeks later, India were out of the tournament in the group stage for the first time since 2016. Not everything went according to plan. What went wrong for Kaur and Co.?
Heading into the tournament, many teams tried to get as many matches as possible. In India's group, New Zealand and Australia faced each other while Pakistan had a series against South Africa. Since the final of the Asia Cup where they lost to Sri Lanka, India did not play any international fixture. Granted, the team had dedicated camps for fielding, fitness and skills, but nothing can compare to the actual match experience.
Heading into the World Cup, one of the most asked questions to the Indian team management was regarding their batting order, specifically their number three. With many permutations and combinations already used since Muzumdar took over, India still couldn't find a reliable answer for the position. During the World Cup, Kaur herself walked in at three against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, while Jemimah Rodrigues, who usually bats at five, had to change her position. At the same time, amongst the 15-member squad, only two players did not get the opportunity, Yastika Bhatia and Dayalan Hemalatha could have easily slotted into that position, leaving room for others to have enough freedom.
Apart from their group stage game against Sri Lanka, India's fielding woes were continuously displayed, especially under lights. As many as five dropped catches against Australia, for example, gave enough opportunity for the opposition to go for their aggressive approach. On multiple occasions, Indian fielders were guilty of allowing opposition batters to take runs when they were not agile enough to manufacture the runouts or put pressure on the batters. India had to hide their relatively weaker fielders with substitute fielders and even that did not help their cause in the group stage.
This has been the age-old issue with the team and despite Muzumdar talking about improving that part of the game, nothing much has changed.
As this daily pointed out, right at the time of the appointment of Muzumdar as a head coach one of his biggest challenges would be to give role clarity to every individual player. Indian players, especially batters were sometimes not sure what they were expected to do in their respective roles in the playing XI.
Throughout the tournament, when things were not going their way, Indian players looked like deer under headlights as they waited for things to go their way. There is still a long way to go in that department for India.
After a loss against New Zealand, which depleted their net run rate immediately after the first group-stage match, India needed to win against Pakistan with the biggest margin possible. When the bowlers restricted Pakistan to 105 in the first innings, the expectation from the batters was to chase the total as early as possible. That did not happen.
Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana later admitted that the primary aim of the team was to get the win and two points that came along instead of concentrating too much on net run rate. While it did not account for anything with India losing two matches in the group stage, the attitude was baffling nonetheless.
Mandhana and Shafali Verma have been one of the most successful opening pairs in the women's game, however, in UAE, other than the partnership against Sri Lanka where Mandhana scored a half-ton, and they were able to put 98 runs for the first wicket, the openers did not give a solid base to the batting order that is so used to their openers doing it for them.
In the game against Australia, where Verma tried to score quick runs, Mandhana struggled to find the middle of the bat. Given their reputation, backed up by numbers, the duo had a sub-par tournament by their own standards.
Out of the players who went to Australia for A tour from India only Sajana was part of the World Cup squad. For Australia A, Tahlia McGrath led both white ball series to get experience.
"I felt a lot more prepared today, a lot more calm taking on the captaincy," McGrath said after successfully leading Australia against India. India could have potentially sent a few players on the tour especially when the team was not scheduled for any other series at the same time. Many players would have gained valuable experience through the tour.
Since coming agonisingly close against England in the 2017 final of the ODI World Cup, India have made the same mistakes under pressure throughout the multiple ICC tournaments. Whether it was the fielding issues or not having the role clarity for the individual level. India have buckled up under the pressure on multiple occasions and not having a team psychologist around has added to the problems.
India need a deep analysis of what went wrong and maybe then they can try to solve them. As the wise man once said,' the first step of solving any problem is recognising there is one.' India need to have that reflection soon.
On October 15, late in the evening, the Indian team left Dubai for home. They do not have much regrouping time as they are scheduled to play a three-match ODI series against New Zealand starting on October 24 in Ahmedabad. With the home ODI World Cup on the horizon in 2025, India has enough time and space to prepare well for it, forgetting the woes of the storm that dies too early in UAE. There are multiple positives for India to take from the World Cup, like the return of Arundhati Reddy to the national side and the talent of the likes of Radha Yadav and Shreyanka Patil. For now, the team needs regrouping and reflection on what went wrong. There is a need to take a few tough decisions to make sure the same mistakes are not repeated again.