After a gap of 5 years, Women's WC is set to begin on March 3 with the hosts NZ taking on WI. The Indian team has been playing below their potential since their stellar run in the 2017 WC. But what are the major reasons for their average performance?
Last 5 years team performance.
Matches - 49
Won - 25
Lost - 24
On the contrary, let's take into account the performance from the last 2 years.
Matches - 16
Won - 4
Lost - 12
The last 4 series were against SA, ENG, AUS, and NZ.
SA (1-4), ENG(1-2), AUS(1-2), and NZ(1-4). All the wins for India have come after they have lost the series stating their inexperience to handle pressure. In particular, in the last 3 series, only the last matches were won.
Batting form.
Most 50+ scores for India in ODIs (since 2017 WC)
16 - Smriti Mandhana
14 - Mithali Raj
6 - Punam Raut
4 - Deepti Sharma
3 - Harmanpreet Kaur / Jemimah Rodrigues
Mithali Raj
Matches -16
Runs - 735
Avg - 66.81
SR - below 75
Last series against NZ.
Matches - 5
Runs - 235
SR - 83.3
She has been the standout of all the batters in recent years. She faced criticism of low SR but cometh the big stage before WC she upped her game and improved it above 80 with good strike rotation which was lacking before this series.
Smriti Mandhana Shafali Verma Harmanpreet Kaur
Matches - 13 Matches - 11 Matches - 12
Runs - 436 Runs - 260 Runs - 292
Avg - 36 Avg - 23.63 Avg - 29.20
Apart from Mithali Raj, no one has had good numbers for the past 2 years. Harmanpreet Kaur is the 3rd experienced player in terms of matches (111) last big score was against Australia at the WC SF in 2017 where she scored 175*. The next high score was against NZ in the recently concluded series scoring 63. In between the two high scores she has had a very poor number scoring 4 50s overall.
Smriti Mandhana has been average with her average at 36 scoring runs consistently but not getting converted into 100s.
Bowling Form
Jhulan Goswami Poonam Yadav Rajeshwari Gayakwad
Matches - 13 Matches - 11 Matches - 11
Runs - 107 Avg - 26.75 Wickets - 7 Wickets - 14
Wickets - 20 Avg - 24.60 Avg - 69.72 Avg - 29.78
India has failed to defend scores above 250 which is considered an above par score in Women's ODI. The bowling department has not had a consistent lineup apart from Jhulan who is an automatic choice. Shika Pandey was the next best swing bowler but has not been considered for the WC.
Last WC India went in with spin heavy lineup with Deepti and Poonam economy below 3 the main reason for India's successful campaign in the last WC. This year too India has Deepti, Poonam, Rajeswari, Sneh Rana, and Harmanpreet (considering as part-time).
But will they get assistance is a big question which has been answered in the last few matches?
Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari were the picks of the bowlers for India taking 10 and 6 wickets. But their economy rates have been above 5 which is a worrying scene going into WC with smaller grounds.
Youngsters to watch out
Yasthika Bhatia
Playing only 7 matches overall she had been picked for the WC considering her form in domestic and AUS series where she scored 102 runs in 3 matches her debut series in Australia.
Meghna Singh
The likely replacement for Shika Pandey. She has played only 5 matches taking 3 wickets. Like Yastika she made her debut in the Australia series where she showed her capability to swing the ball. We do not find many swing bowlers in India probably this might be the reason for her selection in the WC.
Fielding woes.
India has been the worst fielding side of all the nations. In the recently concluded NZ series on average India conceded 20 runs which could decide the fate of the game. But India on the other hand did not rotate the strike as their counterparts failed to put pressure on the fielders. If they get this part rectified in particular it would be a much-improved side making it to the knockouts quite comfortably.
Comments
Post a Comment