Boria Majumdar
We often think that matches are won by teams that have talent. Or rather, a bunch of talented players. The truth is that matches are also won by using common sense, and talent is not always enough. The Indian team under Harmanpreet Kaur certainly has the talent to go the distance. Australia and South Africa are two of the best teams in the tournament, and both were games India could have won. They did not. And it’s not because they don’t have the talent. Rather, they lacked the common sense to do the basics right.
It doesn’t take rocket science to tell your lower-order players that, with one decent batter in Sneh Rana still out there, all they needed to do was give her the strike. With 10 balls left, it was always likely that Rana would get a boundary away and score a few. In the end, the few runs that India missed out on turned out to be the difference.
And here, everyone is at fault. There is a school of thought which asks why we are blaming the young tail-enders. They have little experience of international cricket and aren’t the ones responsible. Such arguments don’t make sense to me. Kranti Goud, for example, is a very talented youngster. She is now a national team player and is playing the World Cup. This inexperience argument doesn’t really hold. When you are batting with Sneh, who is in decent form, you just take a single and give her the strike. Also, Kranti isn’t so inept with the bat to not be able to do so. Instead, she played the big shot and got out. It is not about inexperience. It is about lack of game awareness or, put more bluntly, lack of common sense. Pretty basic if we come to think of it, and that’s what India and Kranti lacked.
Now to Harmanpreet Kaur and Amol Muzumdar. Why would there not be clear instructions to the tail to just give as much strike as possible to Sneh? This is Australia you are playing against, and they are the best by a mile. Every run matters, and yet you blow it from 309-5, with more than five overs remaining. Why weren’t Kranti and Shree Charani just told not to do anything rash, and not give it away? If they aren’t capable, they need to be told. If they can’t think, they need to be coached. Handheld. For such basic mistakes, the team can’t suffer in the end.
India still have a chance. Against England and New Zealand, they will yet again have their moments. But can they grab those chances? Can they do the basics right? Can they not make mistakes which leave us all gasping in frustration? So far at least, this has been a very frustrating campaign. And it is not new. We say this every time there is a world event. India come close and blows it. Harmanpreet is clearly nearing the end and, for her as a player and skipper, time is fast running out. If she can’t get her players to do the basics right, she will be held accountable. And no excuse of resources not being there will work. She has everything at her disposal, and to then see the lack of common sense on the field has been painful.
How do I see things going forward? Can India turn it around or is the cup dream a little too far-fetched? As an optimist, I still think India have a chance. They have the talent. The potential isn’t lacking. Common sense can indeed be instilled, and that’s what Amol has to do in Indore. If he can’t, then after the World Cup, he should no longer be in charge of this team. It is as simple as that.
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