While the whole country is being under a lockdown owing to the coronavirus outbreak and sports coming to a virtual standstill, a breather of good news came for cricket lovers on Wednesday as the Indian women's team qualified for the ICC World Cup 2021 that will be hosted by New Zealand. The ICC technical committee decided to split the points between Pakistan and India for the series that was never played. And, on the back of three important credits, Indian Women remained successful in reserving their berth for the mega-event.

Indian Women were scheduled to play ICC Women’s Championship series against Pakistan last year. However, it was not possible due to the ongoing political tension between the two countries. So ICC awarded three points each to the respective teams.

The mounting tension on India being directly qualifying for the World Cup being now resolved, it will be the right time for the team to break the jinx of getting knocked out consecutively at ICC tournaments. Over a month ago, Harmanpreet Kaur's team went down to their Australian counterparts in the T20 World Cup final. The 85-run defeat extended India's run in ICC finals and semi-finals (men/women) to 8 losses in a row since winning the Champions Trophy in 2013. While both India teams have performed well at all the ICC tournaments in recent times, they continue to fail at the cusp of adding to their major trophy cabinet.

Since the 2013 Champions Trophy win under MS Dhoni, the men's team has reached 2 more finals (World T20 2014, Champions Trophy 2017) and 3 semi-finals (2015 World Cup, 2016 World T20, 2019 World Cup), failing to win the corresponding matches. India women, on the other hand, have now reached 2 finals (2017 World Cup, 2020 T20 World Cup) and another semi-final appearance in the 2018 edition of the T20 World Cup but returned empty-handed just like their male counterparts. The knockout hoodoo has well and truly got to them, and in fact they are being called the new ‘chokers’.

India reaching the semis or even the finals at times is not a matter of surprise, hoewever crossing those final hurdles has become a real challenge. In the group or league stages of the same tournament, India breeze past most opponents. But they falter on big days. They simply crumble, letting the pressure get to them, and that’s been evident ever since the start of the year 2014.

At the 2017 World Cup, India lost to England in the final by 9 runs. (Source: Reuters)

2017 Women's World Cup Final

This happens to be the closest any India team (men/women) came to lifting an ICC trophy in the past 6 years. Chasing a modest target of 229, India at 191 for 3 looked like they had the trophy in their grip with Punam Raut leading the way with 86 runs. But her dismissal triggered an extraordinary collapse which saw India losing 7 wickets for just 28 runs thereby falling tantalizingly short by 9 runs.

2018 Women's World T20 Semi-final

England broke Indian hearts once again when the Indian batting floundered on the big day as they managed a below-par 112. Indian women lost eight wickets for 23 runs to slump from 89 for 2 to 112 all out in 19.2 overs. England duly chased down the score with 17 balls to spare and 8 wickets in hand. However, the biggest talking point surrounding the defeat was the unceremonious dropping of senior-most player Mithali Raj for the clash - a decision which eventually exposed a series of rifts within the Indian team management.

2020 Women's T20 World Cup Final

Indian women's cricket team - 2020 T20 World Cup Final

Despite earning a sensational victory over hosts Australia in the opening game of the group stage, India were put under the pump from the very 1st ball of the final when Alyssa Healy smashed a full-toss from Deepti Sharma across the long-on boundary. Chasing an imposing 185 to win, India never really looked settled after losing explosive opener Shafali Verma on the 3rd ball of their pursuit. Megan Schutt picked 4 wickets to bundle India out for 99 leading to raucous celebrations from Meg Lanning's team.

With the qualification at the 2021 World Cup, and return of the veteran players like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami will definitely add the experience to the side. Despite having a heavily armoured batting line up, India should focus on not to crumble under pressure at knockouts and strengthen their bowling attack which is heavily-reliant on spinners, with a reminder that New Zealand doesn't have spin-friendly conditions. With a full-strength, Indian will aim to break the jinx of the final hurdle at the World Cup.

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