FEATURES
Follow UsWhen the brief home season began for Harmanpreet Kaur and her team against England and Australia, there was immense anticipation to see how India would turn up in all aspects of the game - from the coaching point of view to discovering key resources for various open positions.
Alas, the results didn’t go India’s way in the shortest format of the game, and they could only win two of the six T20I games. The concerning fact was for India is that there’s a T20 World Cup scheduled in the second half of this year, and as of now, there’s no international bilateral series scheduled for the team after the WPL and before the World Cup.
The issues that arose from India’s performances in the series - patchy bowling, butterfingers and inconsistent batting order (especially in the lower middle order) - remain unaddressed.
Under such a situation, the WPL remains the only international-level tournament where the players can at least individually work on their lacunas. Meanwhile, the Indian team management can closely monitor the players' performances and refine their selection and strategies based on their observations.
There are quite a few aspects of the team that coach Amol Mazumdar and Harmanpreet Kaur would have identified for their team to improve upon during the WPL. Let’s go through them.
Harmanpreet’s India need Harmanpreet in form
The last time Harmanpreet was in Bangladesh, the tour ended on a horrific note for her reputation. For that to change the next time she’s there, she’ll not only have to be careful with her demeanour on the field, but also need to get back in form somehow because her scores in the last six T20Is she batted in are 3,6,6*,9, 26.
When Harmanpreet gets dismissed early, it puts extra pressure on the lower middle-order of India, which has failed to win games despite being placed comfortably to get over the line. Moreover, she is one of India’s best batters against spin. Which is why her return to form becomes much more crucial as the World Cup is in Bangladesh.
The biggest silver lining amidst this is that the last time Harmanpreet donned the Mumbai Indians blue, gold and pink, she was an absolute sensation. The megastar from Moga hit 282 runs at a huge average of 40 and a strike rate of 135 in WPL 2023. Just like the red soil batting paradises in Mumbai, she’ll be batting in the friendly conditions of Chinnaswamy and the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Smriti Mandhana’s conversion conundrum
When Mandhana starts batting, it’s hard not to watch. Each boundary she hits affirms your belief that nothing bad could happen as long as this batter from Sangli continues to make her bat sing. But alas, in the T20I format, an average of 27.46 suggests that the dream has been short-lived.
In the last six T20Is, she has reached double figures five out of six times. However, she's only crossed 50 once and scored one 48. India won both these games and lost the remaining four.
When Mandhana scores for India, she does it at quite a handy pace, and as a result, it frees up the dominating middle order of Harmanpreet, Ghosh, Vastrakar, etc, to come and build on her work. It also ensures that her opening partner, Shafali Verma, doesn't try something unnecessary in desperation, which she has often been guilty of.
On slow pitches of Bangladesh, her big starts would be even more crucial, and the WPL provides her a great opportunity to get into a regular habit of doing that. She needs to break this pattern of getting out after making her pretty 20s.
RCB would definitely benefit immensely if their skipper forgets the pits of last season and soars to new heights. However, it’s the Indian team that will benefit even more.
Who will be India’s left-arm spinner?
Slow left-arm (SLA) bowlers have recently walked in and out of the Indian side as if there’s a parade going on.
Anusha Bareddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Mannat Kashyap, Saika Ishaque, and Radha Yadav have all been in the white-ball squads for India in the last few years. However, ask Harmanpreet who her best slow left arm (SLA) option is, and her answer might depend on who played the last series for India.
Hence, a great season for any of the abovementioned ones, or a new candidate (like capped Indian players Ekta Bisht and Gouher Sultana) can see them on the flight to Dhaka come the World Cup.
There’s no doubt that Saika Ishaque seems to be the front-runner now. She has five wickets in three T20I games and was the highest wicket-taker in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy. This definitely tilts the balance in her favour, but there’s a high chance that India might take another SLA bowler with them, and that’s where this WPL becomes an open contest for the other SLA bowlers in the league.
India needs a leggie as well!
After Poonam Yadav stopped getting picked for India, there’s hardly been a leg spinner who has earned the trust of the management to be a regular pick in the eleven. Devika Vaidya came quite close, but only ten wickets after 14 innings don't support her case much, and she didn’t play the T20Is against England and Australia.
As a result, with the World Cup happening in spin-friendly conditions, the leg spinner’s spot in India’s squad is completely open.
There would be quite capable contenders looking to earn that spot this season. Asha Sobhana (RCB), Poonam Yadav (DC), Keerthana Balakrishnan (MI), Parshavi Chopra (UPW), and Priya Mishra (GG) seem like the top contenders at the moment. With the pitches in Bangalore and Delhi generally having just a little bit for spinners on most occasions, expect these talented leg spinners to come into the game whenever presented with an opportunity.
Find a finisher and trust her
It was the second ODI between India and Australia. Richa Ghosh had just got out, scoring a brilliant 96 off 117 balls. India needed 41 runs in 37 balls, and with Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Amanjot Kaur and Shreyanka Pati to come, victory was within grasp.
However, India lost the game by three runs and continued the ignominious pattern set from the 2017 ODI World Cup final, which continued in the 2022 Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Match and the 2023 T20 World Cup final.
There are quite a few Indian hard-hitting batters in the league who would be doing similar jobs for their franchises, batting lower down the order - Pooja Vastrakar (Mumbai Indians), Ashwani Kumari (Delhi Capitals), Poonam Khemnar (UP Warriorz), Dayalan Hemalatha (Gujarat Giants).
In case any of these, or others, do a good job finishing games for their franchise, the Indian management should look to get them in the side, especially considering how all of them are experienced campaigners and have secondary skills to offer. In that regard, Hemalatha offers a lucrative choice as she already has international experience.
However, the management would then have to trust the individual they pick for the role, which they have failed to do in the past, instead choosing to play musical chairs with batting positions in chases. It remains to be seen if the old patterns are finally broken.
