The fortunes of the Indian women’s cricket team have turned as quickly and as dramatically as those of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in the country. After securing a hard-fought whitewash of the West Indies in the One-Day International leg – the first whitewash of a top six team in almost 15 years – the West Indies returned the favour in the three Twenty20 Internationals, outclassing the hosts in all three encounters.
The 1,000-odd strong crowd at the Dr Gokaraju Liala Gangaaraju ACA Cricket Ground in Vijayawada, which also hosted the ODI leg, was treated to some explosive cricket, particularly from the West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor, who scored an astounding 181 runs in the three matches, including a 51-ball 90 in the first. She and her side served the Indians a fierce reminder of why they were the WT20 champions.
“For most of the girls, it’s like an easy switch [from ODIs to T20I cricket]”, Taylor told Cricbuzz. Indeed the West Indies batters showed a clarity of shot-making and an ability to pace the innings, which was missing in the ODIs, where they failed to last 50 overs on two occasions.
“My position, being at the top, I know that if I can get the team to at least, say, 100-115 at about 15 [overs], we have hitters who can come and finish the job” she added.
Top order troubles
It was exactly the kind of clarity that was missing in the Indian top order. In the absence of Mithali Raj, who missed all three matches because of illness, India used three different opening combinations in all three games. While it is usually a question of who would partner Smriti Mandhana, the southpaw had an indifferent series herself, compounding the pressure on the middle order. Jhulan Goswami defended both the moves though.
“We tried [different openers] for the benefit of the team. [We wanted to see] which combination we can play in the next tournament,” she said. Nonetheless, the opening partnership has been like an annoying corn on the foot that refuses to be cured. The openers put on scores of four, five, and zero in the three games. The West Indies, on the other hand, had opening partnerships of 31, 35 and 61. The difference between the two teams in the Powerplay was proportionately glaring.
More reassuring was the form of Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur. In her first series as captain of the T20 side, she deserves much of the credit for taking India to their third highest T20I total in the first match, 150. That it was achieved in the absence of Mithali Raj, who has been the mainstay of the batting for a decade, is even more praiseworthy. With two fifties and 171 runs in the series, captaincy certainly did not seem to be weighing her down. Equally fluent was Veda Krishnamurthy, who continued where she left off in the ODIs (86 runs at an average of 43).
Miserable fielding
But if one department excelled, the other failed miserably. In the first T20I, India’s fielding was ragged, with the Windies batters being allowed easy singles, which helped them set themselves a platform. India failed to defend 150 on that occasion, with the West Indies recording the second-highest successful run-chase in T20Is. When the fielding and bowling held the visitors back to 137 in the second T20I, the batting imploded, with Harmanpreet the last batter out for 43.
It didn’t help that the lower middle order had got precious little game time in the preceding ODI series, thanks to a good show from the top order. Besides Deepti Sharma, who was dropped for the last T20I, the other all-rounders came up short with the bat, and it fell to Harmanpreet and Veda to do the bulk of the scoring.
With the news breaking on Wednesday that India would forfeit the ICC Championship points for not playing the series against Pakistan, the team has a busy few months ahead. India will first play in the T20 Asia Cup, being held in Thailand from November 27. The tournament will feature India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the hosts. India are, on paper, the strongest team in the competition, but will not easily forget the WT20 loss at the hands of Pakistan. There will be little room for complacency.
After that, Harmanpreet and Mandhana will play in the Women’s Big Bash League. This is the first time that Indians are playing in a foreign league. The rest of the squad will return to domestic cricket, with a T20 competition slated for December. In February next year, India will play the ICC qualifiers in Sri Lanka, courtesy of not making the top four in the ICC Women’s Championship. The event will see 10 teams vying for the four available slots in the Women’s World Cup, to be held in England next summer.
All this cricket means that India have a golden opportunity to pick the players they think are right for the World Cup, and give them an extended run, right up to England. But first, India will need to seal their berth in Sri Lanka. The schedule will call for judicious selection, both of players and of shots, over the next six months. For now, the focus will shift to the Asia Cup, where India will seek to regain some of the pride lost in this series.