Follow UsThe Indian Women’s team got off to the best start possible, with two dominant wins in a row in the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025. But one loss triggered another, as Harmanpreet Kaur’s side have now lost three clashes in a row, losing the plot in a home World Cup, with a risk of losing out on semi-final qualification.
In their clash against England, it was evident when India dropped batter Jemimah Rodrigues to accommodate a sixth-bowling option, in Renuka Singh Thakur. Even that decision didn’t go down well as they lost by a narrow margin of four runs. However, former head coach WV Raman begged to differ, stating that India didn’t lose because of just dropping Jemimah.
“We can say that instead of Jemi, somebody else could have been benched. But they felt that they needed somebody at the top of the order to provide the start. It’s easy to be judgmental from the outside, but I don’t think they lost because of the XI fielded. It should have been closed out by the players picked,” Raman told The Indian Express.
India’s situation to semi-final qualification is quite clear, they need either two wins or a win and hope that New Zealand only win one out of their last two games. Raman insisted that the team shouldn’t really overthink about the situation.
“The important thing in these situations is not to overthink or get ahead of yourselves. Because they were sitting pretty when that partnership between Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana was going on. Maybe people probably went a bit ahead of themselves. That sometimes can upset the applecart,” he added.
The former Indian head coach also wants the team to ‘pipe down’ a bit mentally and believes that they need to be calm in tough situations.
“Pipe down a little bit mentally,” Raman said. “It’s a case of emotional management in a tight game. So you have to not get too excited about things. Be calm, take some time and think clearly.”
India’s next clash is against New Zealand, on October 23 (Thursday) at DY Patil Stadium, where India have a more than decent track record.