The last few days have been excruciating for India’s women’s cricket team. After suffering an embarrassing ODI series defeat against Australia earlier this week, the team had to travel for more than seven thousand kilometres – from Perth to Mumbai – and gear up for a T20I home series against the West Indies, beginning at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday.
A jet-lagged India captain Harmanpreet Kaur admitted on the eve of the series opener that it’s difficult to prepare with such a short turnaround time. However, she evaded questions on the scheduling, citing it was beyond her control.
Having lost all the three games against Australia, Harmanpreet’s captaincy has been under scanner and as the team aims to bounce back, it needs to fix the weak links.
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Smriti Mandhana has had a remarkable outing – scoring four centuries in a calendar year in women’s ODIs – even though the overall batting department has failed to step up in crunch situations, and that’s something the team management needs to address.
“It’s really tough when you are going through this patch. While coming back from Australia, we had good talks on the flight and we discussed how to start afresh against the West Indies,” Harmanpreet said.
While the fact that India has won each of its last eight T20Is against the West Indies in the shortest format since November 2019 will boost the team’s confidence, it needs to ensure its batting department takes more responsibility, in the absence of Shafali Verma, who wasn’t considered for the series, despite scoring 531 runs in 20 T20Is this year at 33.18 with a strike rate of 126.73. The captain, who scored two fifties in her last two T20I innings, needs to anchor the middle-order .
In a baffling call, the selectors ignored fast bowler Arundhati Reddy, who recorded the second-best figures of 10-2-26-4 for any Indian in ODIs in Australia just a few days ago, and handed maiden call-ups tp Nandini Kashyap and Raghvi Bist.
While Harmanpreet was confident that her team would bounce back in familiar conditions, it won’t be easy as the West Indies comes into the series with impressive statistics – having won nine of its 13 T20Is this year.
As skipper Hayley Matthews stated that her side will be hoping to play some ‘really good cricket’ to tame India at home, the focus will be on the captain and young Qiana Joseph. The comeback of the seasoned Deandra Dottin will boost the visiting team’s confidence ahead of an exciting series.
Match starts at 7pm