With performances on a downward spiral, the WPL gains are getting lost and momentum severely impacted. Immediate correctives are in order.
Salient points
Mithali Raj was called out for her strike rate. With Raj having retired a year earlier, there is no one who can remotely come close to her in terms of consistency.
Shikha Pandey is the classic case of how players should not be treated.
Stars like Shafali and Jemima continue to be inconsistent.
Fast bowling department looks barren.
Selection calls are seriously problematic.
Do we really have a road map for the women’s game in India? Is there a plan in place to consolidate the gains made in the last few months with the launch of the WPL or will the ongoing Bangladesh series derail it all and most gains are now lost? With problematic selections, poor batting, failure to step up under pressure and lack of support for the captain has added to the anxiety surrounding the future of the sport in India.
Without clarity in selection and better performances from the team, it is only natural that the sport will lose steam and the murmur of negativity will grow louder. Social media is abuzz accusing the selectors for taking poor calls, which lack reasoning and yet again most of the anger is understandable.
2023 was a year of opportunity for the women’s game. A hugely successful WPL had set the stage. And the BCCI, it has to be acknowledged, pulled out all stops to make the tournament a success. And just last week has come the announcement of equal prize money for men and women in ICC tournaments. A welcome call, it is an important step towards equality.
This is where we needed Harmanpreet, Smriti and the team to go a few steps higher. Make the most of the momentum and deliver performances that would add to the popularity of the game in India. We needed the selectors to take calls, which offered stability to the team and allowed the players the comfort they need. Sadly for Indian cricket, none of the above has happened.
This is where I go back to the English and what happened to them in world cup 2015 in Australia. Losing to Bangladesh was the nadir for the England men’s team. All that could go wrong had gone wrong and England needed a fresh guard. A new approach. Something had to be done and something had to give. England recalibrated and we have now seen the results. Winners of the T-20 and 50 over world cups in the men’s game, England has turned a new leaf.
India’s inability to chase down 150 with batting till number 10 last evening defies logic. The inability of the middle order to score quick except the skipper is painful. The openers including Smriti have been consistently inconstant and next generation stars like Shafali and Jemima haven’t done much to justify the billing they get. Shikha Pandey, despite strong performances, continues to warm the bench and continues to be treated shabbily. It is a team that looks worn out. There seems to be fear of failure among the girls and that’s where all eyes will be on the skipper to turn things around. While she has played well, her leadership will be questioned if things don’t change for the better and do so quickly.
For the longest time people attacked Mithali Raj for holding on to her spot and not scoring quick. Her strike rate, we were repeatedly told, was the issue. It has been a year now that Raj has left the scene and frankly there is none who can replace her. You don’t need to score at a run a ball to chase down 150. All you need to do is score. Someone has to anchor the innings and Raj was the best ever at that. In her absence we haven’t yet found a player who can hold the innings together and the results tell us a story. Without the coach in Amol Mazumdar traveling with the team, things look dire. And as I said at the start, the momentum from the WPL could soon be lost.
The fast bowling department too looks barren. With Renuka Thakur recuperating from a stress fracture, there is none who can fill the void. While it isn’t easy to replace Jhulan Goswami, she is actually irreplaceable, the way the fast bowlers have been used or treated is baffling. It was Shafali who won us the second T-20 with the ball and in all fairness it was Bangladesh who looked favorites to win the series. Had they not choked under pressure, it could have been a hattrick of losses for India.
To round it off, I would like to believe that not all is negative for our women in the months to come. However, I also believe that the BCCI will do well to take all stakeholders of the sport- players, support staff, selectors into confidence and outline the road map. Address the issue and give the fans confidence. Selectors need to address press conferences and tell us what they think and tell us why players are being replaced in the manner that they are. Why is Shikha not in the team? Is she not good enough or are there other reasons?
A degree of transparency, when things aren’t going well, can only help the sport. We need it to happen and happen immediately. At a time when the sport should have been on accelerator mode, we have started taking backward steps. Immediate correctives are in order, and we need the women’s game to follow the English men’s template from 2015.
Take the hard calls. Go beyond the names and pick players who will not be afraid. It can’t be about Harman alone in the middle order and can’t be about Smriti at the top. And from Smriti too we need more. Think back to the scene from 83 where Kapil tells Sunil Gavaskar he has to score. Could we imagine a similar scene between Harman and Smriti being played out ahead of the next game in Bangladesh?
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