No one walks into a tournament intending to get knocked out, and India didn’t either. For the most part, their intentions were in the right place, but the unsettled formations ended their hopes of making the semis.
Whether you’re a fan or not, you’ll feel for this team. They’ve been to the semi finals 4 times across the 10 editions of this tournament, with reaching the final once in 2020. That is not the sign of a team who doesn’t “have it”.
This Indian team is more or less the same squad that won its first ODI World Cup at home just seven months ago. However, despite looking like a lethal side and being one of the favourites, something just went wrong.
India began their campaign with a dominant win against their arch-rivals, Pakistan. Securing a win of 64 runs after they posted 170/4, with Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur being the highest scorers. While Deepti Sharma had the best figures of 5/10, Shree Charani contributed with 3/21.
In their second match against the Netherlands, they posted 209/5, India’s highest score ever in the T20 World Cup tournament. Smriti was amongst the highest scorers again (74-47) along with Verma (55-38). Talking about the bowling, Shafali picked up 3 wickets for 20, while Charani picked up 4 wickets for 19 runs. India won that match by 95 runs, and it was stating to look like they would live up to their name and go deep into the tournament.
However, the match against South Africa changed things for them. India scored a decent 158/7, with Shafali and Deepti scoring 31 and 29 respectively. Shree Charni even bagged 3 wickets for 24 runs. However, they gave 3 lifelines to Marizanne Kapp, which ultimately caused their defeat.
With Bangladesh, what should’ve been a relatively easier match, Bangladesh made India earn their runs.
With Bangladesh batting first, they posted 136/8. Should’ve been somewhat of an easier chase, however that was not the case. Bangladesh chipped away at India, taking 5 wickets. Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues were the top scorers, while Radha Yadav picked up 3 wickets, with N Sree Charani taking 2.
Then came the last league stage game against, Australia; the kryptonite. What was a do-or-die game for India, things fell short.
India managed to post 170/4, somewhat of an underwhelming score considering the opponents. Shafali and Smriti put on a partnership of 66(55) however they couldn’t accelerate the scoring rate. It was Harmanpreet’s 27 ball 56 that allowed them to post that 170.
In the second innings, India had Australia down 3 for just 68 runs, with Shree Charani taking 2 wickets. Though, Ellyse Perry and Ash Gardner ruined their plans of advancing ahead in the tournament with both scoring crucial 50s.
A sliver of silver lining? India didn’t drop any catches against Australia. But at the end of the league stage, India had put down 10 catches, third-most behind New Zealand and England.
Their bowling attack wasn’t up to the standards. India didn’t play the same pace attack for two games in the row. Nandani Sharma and Kranti Gaud played three matches, while Renuka Singh and Arundhati Reddy played two each.
Out of these three, Nadani had the best economy rate of 8.69 with three wickets. However, Reddy and Gaud went wicketless throughout the tournament. 29 out of the 34 wickets were taken by spinners. Shree Charni bagged 14 wickets, Deepti Sharma took 7 wickets, and Shafali Verma took 5. The spinner outperformed the pacers significantly, but maybe the lack of support from them also resulted in the elimination.
India conceded 7.43 runs an over throughout the tournament, a economy rate worse than the four semi-finalists.
Their batting didn’t quite live up to the standards either. In their first four games, India lost middle-order wickets in clusters. The highest scorers were, Smriti Mandhana (205), Shafali Verma (179), and Harmanpreet Kaur (141). To add to it, the no. 3 role was unsettled. Yasktika Bhatia was chosen over Jemimah Rodrigues on three occasions. While Rodrigues was made to bat at no. 5. Even before the tournament, the no. 5 spot wasn’t cemented, with Bharti Fulmali and Yastika Bhatia in contention for it. Bhatia went on to score just 41 runs in 3 innings at an average of 13.66.
According to head coach, Amol Muzumdar, India failed in all three departments which is why they missed out on the semis. He believes India needs to change their tactics for the T20 game, while bowling and fielding require prompt improvements. He also believes, the bowling attack is also inexperienced and quite young, and the absence of key spinner, Shreyanka Patil hurt.
“I think we really have to rethink our strategy for our T20 game. We really need to put our heads around what combinations we are going to play. With the bat, I think we have been batting with a lot of intent.”
“We have been positive in our thinking. We have been thinking about fours and sixes. As modern-day cricket is all about, I guess T20 cricket is all about fours and sixes. And so we have been thinking and we have been playing in that fashion for sure.”
“It’s just that I think our bowling also needs to up the ante a little bit. I don’t think our bowling or our fielding helped the cause, to be very honest. So I guess we need to really go back and think how we’re going to approach the T20 game and also be in that positive frame of mind.”
“If you look at our bowling attack, it’s been very inexperienced as far as international cricket is concerned,” he noted. “So I’ve said this before in the previous press conference that give us 18 months and this attack will be a different one.”
According to him, the 170 against Australia was a “par” score at best.
“I think if I have to pinpoint on certain things in the entire tournament, I think we really need to think about our bowling and our fielding,” Muzumdar said. “We also need to be a little aggressive with the bat, and we could have maybe [scored] 15-20 [more] runs as a cushion. But having said that, if you look at our bowling attack, it’s been very inexperienced as far as international cricket is concerned. So I’ve said this before in the previous press conference, that give us 18 months and this attack will be a different one.”
Talking about if India could’ve been more attacking from the start, Muzumdar said, “Yes, we could have had. I mean, every time you lose a game, you would want 10-15 runs more in the pocket, but I guess that wasn’t the case. Of course, the powerplay didn’t really go our way. It could have gone maybe 10-15 runs more at that time. Maybe that could have been the difference.”
“But having said that, we hadn’t lost any wicket then, so we were in total control of things. But as I said, I think Australia chased it down really well. They were also three wickets down [at the halfway mark], mind you.”
In the end, even with the right intentions, the wrong combinations and lack of a lethal pace attack to support spin hurt India’s hopes of making it to the final four.
