India need to rethink T20 strategy; Bowling, fielding let us down: Head coach Muzumdar
LONDON: India head coach Amol Muzumdar admitted that the side will have to rethink its approach in the shortest format after a disappointing Women’s T20 World Cup campaign which ended in a group-stage exit, saying Harmanpreet Kaur and Co were below par in all three departments throughout the tournament.
Needing a win to qualify for the semifinals, India failed to defend 170 against six-time championsWe really need to put our heads around what combination we are going to play,” Muzumdar told reporters after the loss.
While India recorded comfortable wins over Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Netherlands, defeats to fellow semifinal contenders South Africa and Australia exposed several shortcomings.rrI thought it was a good score, a par score on this pitch. We even got the momentum towards the end of that innings, and I think we carried it on the field as well. It’s just that I think at the end of the day, Australia were a better side than us.”
In reality, India’s batting never quite clicked throughout the tournament.
Despite regular contributions from the top order, the middle order repeatedly failed to capitalise on good starts, losing wickets in clusters and allowing the opposition to regain control.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,” he added.The team used multiple seam bowling combinations during the five group matches, with Nandani Sharma and Kranti Gaud playing three games each, while Renuka Singh and Arundhati Reddy featured in two matches apiece.
The coach, however, urged patience with a relatively inexperienced attack.Muzumdar also felt the absence of off-spinner Shreyanka Patil, who was ruled out midway through the tournament with an ankle injury, was a significant setback.
“And also, it didn’t help Shreyanka not being there. Shreyanka was probably one of our strikers. So it didn’t help her missing out on half of the tournament. We really missed her in this game today.”
“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.”
Asked if India could have upped in the ante in the powerplay against Australia where they managed just 43/0, Muzumdar said “Yes
“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. We also need to be a little aggressive with the bat, and we could have maybe 15-20 runs as cushion (against Australia),” the coach said.