‘Improving fielding, fitness should be our top priority’
CHANDIGARH: Last edition’s runners-up India made an early exit from the women’s 50-over World Cup in New Zealand, failing to make the semifinals. Skipper of the team, Mithali Raj, 39, opens up on various issues that led to the debacle.
Excerpts
India were the runners-up in the 2017 edition but could not make the semifinals this time...
The build-up to 2017 World Cup was good. From 2016 onwards we were mostly doing well, playing as a unit. This time we did not make it to the knockouts because we were not able to bring our best in all three departments.
Our batting was inconsistent was our bowling but the biggest improvement we need is in our fielding and fitness.
Australia made amends for their semi-final loss to India in 2017 by ruthlessly dominating the event this time. How should India take the World Cup debacle going forward?
We have to start the rebuilding processes right away. Players have to be identified giving them enough opportunities and exposure so they are well nurso tured before the next World Cup. Fitness should be a priority. There should be system for constantly improving the benchmark in fitness and fielding.
The start of Women’s IPL next year should increase the talent pool. Rubbing shoulders with international players in the WIPL will give the domestic players lot of confidence. We have only to look at the kind of talent pool men’s IPL has generated for the Indian team.
The Indian team looked underprepared going into the World Cup and the team combinations kept on changing till the end…
We were in an extended quarantine due to Covid and some of the main players were not available till the fourth ODI against New Zealand in the build-up to the World Cup.
But more than that, I am disappointed we could not play to our potential in the big games and we were not able to put up a solid team performance doing well in all three departments.
Teams that have done well at the World Cup had players who performed consistently, in five games out of seven. We were not able to show the same level of consistency either in batting or bowling.
You have seen Indian women’s cricket evolve over the last 22 years. Do you think having a woman coach at the helm could benefit India?
There are qualified women coaches at the state level. BCCI has also given women coaches a platform through Senior Challenger Trophy and Women’s T20 Challengers.
National Cricket Academy (NCA) also recently conducted a Level 2 course for former international women players. Some of them are quite good and have good understanding of the game and women players. Definitely adding them to the India coaching staff will help the team.
{ MITHALI RAJ } INDIA WOMEN’S CAPTAIN
Start of Women’s IPL next year should increase the talent pool. Rubbing shoulders with top foreign players will give domestic confidence
We did not see Harmanpreet bowling much in the World Cup…
In the New Zealand series, I did give Harman an opportunity to bowl in the first two ODIS but her economy was between 7-7.5. In the Australia game too, we played with five regular bowlers and I did ask Harman to warm-up as I wanted to bring her on but she said she can’t because of a stiff back. Sometimes too much is made out of things without knowing the facts.