"Definitely not the standard expected from the Indian women's cricket team" - Jemimah Rodrigues on fielding mistakes
Jemimah Rodrigues has admitted that India's fielding against Australia in the 0-3 whitewash at the hands of Australia at home wasn't up to the standards expected of the national side. The ace batter acknowledged the repeated errors and too many "bad days" and promised that they'd "come back stronger".
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side dropped as many as seven chances in the second ODI as India lost the game by three runs. More half chances going down followed in the third ODI on Tuesday, where the Women in Blue lost by a massive margin of 190 runs.
"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 from the Indian women's cricket team. But I can assure you that we will work on it and come back stronger," Jemimah, who was one of the best performers with the bat in the series, said after the match.
"I don't think it's anything to do with fatigue. I think it's just something we need to really work on. I wouldn't blame anything because we've been getting everything - the practices we want, the light practices (under floodlights) and everything. I just can't say it was a bad day because a bad day can't keep on coming again and again. But again I'm telling you, we promise you that we are going to work hard on this aspect," Jemimah added.
Fielding has been a major issue for the women's team for a long time. It's similar to the men's team's struggles in the department when they first started getting regular international matches after the 1960s.
"We need a little more time" - Jemimah Rodrigues
Although the facilities given to the team are set to be at par with the men's side, some observers have also attributed the errors to the lack of consistency in the coaching staff. New coach Amol Mazumdar was appointed only in October 2023, 10 months after the previous coach, Romesh Powar, left the job.
Jemimah also said that the team needs a bit more time to gel together and completely align with Mazumdar and his staff to move forward.
"It's a new coaching staff. We've not spent a lot of time with Amol sir, whatever time we've spent is just before the series could start. But before that, for Amol sir to understand the girls, I think he's done his homework before coming in. But then coming in and gelling up, and even for the girls to gel up with Amol sir...because it's not easy whenever a new coach comes in but I think the best part of our team was everyone gelled up well. And everyone understood each other and the roles really well and really quick," Jemimah said.
"But of course we need a little more time, maybe some camp where we can actually get to work together even more because that's just going to help us. But I think having Amol sir has really helped us a lot and the girls have gelled up really well with him. We are very comfortable and he's very comfortable with us. But for us it's just about how we are going to get better. About the T20s we've not had a conversation yet, because we kept it for after the ODIs, we wanted to go one match at a time," she added.
India Women will now compete with Australia in a three-T20I series from January 5.