Where to start?? This is a question that one visualises several times after watching India’s loss to New Zealand, in their first match of the T20 World Cup. New Zealand generated more swing and their spinners did relatively better. New Zealand’s fielding was a couple of rungs higher as was their batting. Sophie Devine’s captaincy too seemed to be of a higher standard.
Basically, looking at the above-mentioned lines, one can gauge the fact that India suffered a crushing loss. For starters, let’s think of India’s fielding efforts. It has been underwhelming over a period of time. The personnel have changed and different coaches have come and gone, but India continue to fluff chances: Be it the 2016 World Cup, the 2017 Asia Cup, 2024 Asia Cup or the ongoing T20 World Cup in the desert of the UAE.
There were at least three misfields and a sitter was grassed by Richa Ghosh to give a reprieve to Suzie Bates. It is true that one can’t chase perfection, but it is about striving for excellence. Somewhere it feels as if the outfielders don’t necessarily attack the ball enough. Even in the training session before the India-New Zealand encounter, it seemed to be the case.
The batting side of things will come under scrutiny. But even India’s bowling was under-par. New Zealand found over 2 degrees of average swing while India’s generated 1.4 degrees of average swing. Rosemary Mair in particular was hooping it around the corners. Meanwhile, Renuka Singh, Arudhati Reddy and Pooja Vastrakar couldn’t match them. It has to be mentioned that Pooja is more of a hit-the-pitch bowler. Probably, some external factors also ensured the ball was kept in pristine conditions at night. Even if we consider that as a factor, New Zealand’s pace bowlers clearly outbowled their counterparts.
The Indian spinners too had an off day. Just to exemplify the point further, in the 18th over, Brooke Halliday employed the switch-sweep to crack one past short third man. Deepti Sharma, the bowler, was clearly rattled. The next ball, she shifted her line towards the leg-stump and that was met with a scoop shot. That one exchange between the pair gave an inkling about how the Indian spinners were outmanoeuvered.
The batting wasn’t any different. New Zealand’s Sophie Devine put on a splendid exhibition of stroke-play. The feature of her innings was the ability to pick the length early, helping her to use the depth of the crease fairly well. The Indian batters were mostly stuck in the crease while facing Eden Carson. Generally, that is an indicator the Indian batters weren’t sure of the length.
India’s woes didn’t stop there. With Deepti having a poor day, India could have made a few tweaks to their plans. For instance, Shreyanka Patil could have bowled the 18th over instead of the all-rounder. During the last couple of overs, there wasn’t any real change in field placings, with Devine exploring different parts of the ground. Pooja, one of the pace-spearheads, bowled a single over. If the all-rounder has been laid low by a niggle, then the think-tank might have very well looked at another option.
Just to strike some balance between criticism and logic, it has to be observed that a captain is as good as the team. When the team has been outgunned, outclassed and outmanoeuvred, not much a captain can do. In a nutshell, only one team seemed to be playing in the middle at the Dubai International Stadium and that was not India.
So, where can India go from here? Their next game is against Pakistan, who are coming on the back of an impressive win over Sri Lanka. Probably the Indian team members have to listen to what Jemiah Rodrigues said in the after-match presser: “Today would be the game we’d like to forget. This is a World Cup and we need to keep moving on and picking ourselves up – we can’t stay stuck on this game. We need to pick ourselves up and show the character of this team.”
Those words have to be turned into action when India lock horns against Pakistan on October 6.