3 big lessons for India Women from 3-0 washout against Australia
India Women came up with extremely disappointing performances as they were hammered 3-0 by Australia Women in the recently concluded ODI series at home. The hosts went into the ODI series on a high, having registered emphatic Test wins over England and Australia.
India, however, went down to Australia by six wickets in the opening ODI at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Batting first, the hosts put up 282/8 on the board in their 50 overs, a total Australia chased down without much trouble in 46.3 overs. In the second match, the hosts failed to chase a target of 259, losing the match by three runs.
There was no consolation win for India Women in the third and final match. Instead, they were handed a 190-run hammered by Australia. Batting first, the visitors put up an imposing 338/7 on the board before bundling out India for 148 in 32.4 overs.
In the wake of India Women’s 3-0 loss to Australia, we ponder on three big lessons for the hosts from the defeat.
#1 India Women are still way behind Australia in terms of consistency
When India Women beat England and Australia in Tests, there were high hopes for them heading into the ODI series. However, Australia exposed the wide gulf that exists between the two sides with some dominant performances with both the bat and ball.
Heading into the recently concluded ODI series, India Women had played 50 ODIs against Australia, winning only 10 and losing as many as 40. They would have been hopeful of performing much better in the three-match home series but were given a rude wake-up call by the visitors.
India Women have improved their game significantly over the last decade. However, they are still nowhere near Australia in terms of consistency and match-winning ability.
That’s the harshest but biggest takeaway from the 3-0 drubbing Harmanpreet Kaur and company were handed by the Australians.
#2 India’s fielding standards in the series were unacceptable
To say that India Women’s fielding against Australia was abysmal would be an understatement. They were shockingly shambolic in the field. The hosts dropped as many as seven catches in the second ODI, which they ended up losing by three runs.
There were a few missed chances in the third game as well. Some of the catches were absolute sitters, which club-level cricketers would be expected to take.
One can't win matches with such below-par fielding efforts. So, expecting to beat Australia despite a horrendous show in the field is like a far-fetched dream. Speaking at a post-match press conference after the third ODI, Jemimah Rodrigues admitted that India were not good enough on the fielding front.
"I don't think there's any reason we can give, we need to accept what we've done. We've not played to our highest potential, especially in the fielding department there's a lot of work we need to still continue (doing). We have been working on it but definitely not the standard expected for the Indian women's cricket team. But I can assure you that we will work on it and come back stronger," she said.
Rodrigues also candidly conceded that it wasn’t a case of one bad day because the fielding lapses happened in multiple games. This is an area of their game India Women will have to work extremely hard on.
#3 Both batters and bowlers need to introspect deeply on their performances
It was not about just their fielding, but literally every aspect of their game that let India Women down in the ODI series.
If we look at their batting, Jemimah, Richa Ghosh, and Pooja Vastrakar got one half-century each. No other Indian batter scored a fifty. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur registered three single-figure scores, while Smriti Mandhana had a highest score of 34.
In the bowling department as well, India failed to defend a total of 282 in the first ODI and conceded 338 runs in the third.
Deepti Sharma and Shreyanka Patil did well with the ball, but most of the others failed to rise to the challenge.
On the whole, as a team, India Women were just not good enough and need to dig deep to analyze where they went wrong.