Women's Cricket
Coaching overhaul, WPL- Road ahead for Indian women's cricket team
With the women's T20 World Cup campaign done and dusted, here is some issues Indian team needs to address and look forward to.
The knockout game loss against Australia in the Women's T20 World Cup is something the Indian team and fans are used to giving the regular occurrence at the event.
As much as the game was physically exhausting, it was the same mentally. The same old problems raised their ugly head and India has been left without answers again.
With another exit in a marquee tournament, there are a few things the Indian women will be looking forward to.
Coaching Overhaul
The current coaching staff needs a complete change and the management should address this issue on priority. The trend of NCA coaches coming before a major tournament should be long gone and BCCI needs to come up with a permanent set of coaching staff.
The lack of time any new group of coaches gets just before the tournament is something that hampers the execution during the tournament. The removal of Ramesh Powar months before the Women's T20 World Cup didn't help the Indian team.
Need for Mental Conditioning and S&C Coach
Indian women's cricket team badly needs a strength and conditioning coach along with mental conditioning coach. India lost to Australia in those crucial factors- fielding and mental strength.
Images of a diving Ellyse Perry slapping that ball out of the boundary is going to be one of the greatest fielding efforts in the history of Women's cricket. On the other hand, the Indian team was just a pale shadow of what a world-class fielding unit looks like.
The way the Indian team fielded yesterday has raised serious questions and doubts about the fitness of the senior side. The U-19 women's team on the other hand displayed a fielding masterclass in their World Cup triumph.
Former captain Diana Edulji has no qualms in saying that India's U-19 stars fielded way better in their victorious T20 World Cup campaign in comparison to the seniors' effort in South Africa and reckons that most of them will struggle if the 'yo yo' test becomes mandatory in women's cricket.
It is high time that BCCI brings in experts from the respective fields to assist this team better.
Shafali Verma Conundrum
Indian opener Shafali Verma is considered one of the most exciting prospects of the game but her recent performances have been sub-par, to say the least. Shafali scored 102 runs in five games with an average of 20.40 and a strike rate of 102.
Apart from a disappointing outing with the bat, Shafali was horrendous on the field. Her poor fielding efforts cost India 9 runs in the semi-finals along with a catch of Beth Mooney.
Now the biggest question which comes is how long you back exciting talent without performance? With players like Shweta Sehrawat, Sabbineni Meghana, and Yastika Bhatia waiting on the wings, how much rope does Shafali gets?
With WPL starting next week, more batting talents will come up, and in that case, Shafali needs to put in more effort and improve her game or else there won't be any other option than dropping her.
The Bowling failure
The Indian bowling failed as a unit in the T20 World Cup. The only standout performer was Renuka Thakur with a fifer against England but she was also clobbered against the Aussies.
Indian spinners had a bad outing at the world cup as Rajeshwari Gayakwad went wicketless and Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav failed to step up at the crucial moment.
Shikha Pandey failed to do anything substantial on her return to the national team. Pooja Vastrakar was also a big failure with the ball before she was ruled out of the tournament.
India needs to look beyond the current roster with the likes of Meghana Singh and Anjali Sarvani waiting in the wings.
Women's Premier League
With the T20 World Cup campaign done and dusted, the Indian players and fans will shift their focus toward the long-awaited Women's Premier League. The inaugural edition of the tournament is scheduled to start on 4th March in Mumbai.
WPL will be crucial for the Indian players and the domestic players as they will get a chance to compete against the best and go through tough situations in the tournament further helping them with mental conditioning.
It will also serve as a platform for the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, and others to gain their form back for the coming international fixtures.
