We are halfway into the T20 World Cup league stage and it’s already apparent that India have to play extraordinary cricket to go the distance. If crashing to a 58-run defeat to New Zealand — conceding them a net run rate of 2.9 in the process — wasn’t bad enough, scraping to 108 against Pakistan with just seven balls to spare has further hurt India’s chances of top-four qualification.
Sri Lanka are next, followed by the indomitable Australians, and with a win now comes the prerequisite of achieving it comprehensively. Considering India’s batting despair, it may seem a bit too much to ask for right now. No sixes, a Powerplay run rate of 5.66, no specialist batter barring Harmanpreet Kaur touching a strike rate of 100 so far — India’s batting just hasn’t hit the right notes.
To top it all, there was the lack of clarity over India’s No 3 batting position. Kaur was supposed to bat one down throughout the World Cup, but Jemimah Rodrigues was sent in her place in the game against Pakistan, raising concerns over India’s batting confidence. With Kaur cleared for the Sri Lanka game after a neck injury scare, it remains to be seen whether India revert to the old order.
But Smriti Mandhana indicated it will depend on the conditions. “The wicket conditions and ground conditions changed from what we expected,” Mandhana said in a press conference on Tuesday. “It (No.3 role) depends on the match situation, who we are playing, where we are playing. I wouldn’t say it was all planned. It would depend on what we are chasing also, we will keep that in consideration to decide batting order.”
This isn’t India’s only problem though. More perplexing is their sedate approach to batting despite being emphatic about playing a bold brand of cricket in the build-up to the T20 World Cup. Granted the outfields have been slow and there has been barely any dew, but India haven’t exactly exploited the new ball either.
Worse, too early did they seem to walk into the net run rate trap without giving unshackled batting a fair chance during the Pakistan game.
That lack of intent stuck out despite the win against Pakistan, something Mandhana admitted after the match that they could have done differently.
“A better start with the bat would have been good, but we will take that win,” she had said at the post-match presentation. “Me and Shafali (Verma) could not time the ball (in the Powerplay). We didn’t want to end up losing a lot of wickets. We were a little calculative. The net run rate is on our mind. Sri Lanka have been playing good cricket, but this game will give us momentum.”
One win can’t provide any momentum, especially on the back of a defeat as bad as New Zealand. And India made the situation worse for themselves by letting it affect them to the point of tinkering with the batting order. The whole point of slotting Rodrigues down the order before the World Cup was because she could play spin better. But with openers Mandhana and Verma not taking the lead in setting the right tone at the top, Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma are being pressured into playing a different game, resulting in an overall dip in strike rate.
No batting approach is perfect but the current trend has been of packing the side with all-rounders and not worrying about wickets as long as the desired strike rate is being achieved. That seemed to be the idea against New Zealand till India overplayed their hand and lost half the side by the 11th over of the chase. Trying to overcompensate against Pakistan in the next game has now left India with a considerable run rate deficit to overcome, but Mandhana isn’t willing to look too far ahead.
“The first priority is to win the match and it’s a balance between what is best for the team and what we can do in terms of NRR,” she said. “I started off fine last game but I consumed dot balls later on, which was irritating for me. We can’t go out there thinking we are going to attack any opposition and cruise, (because) conditions and outfield are difficult. The first priority is winning (rather) than thinking of NRR in these situations. The group is definitely tricky, but it’s just the start, we don’t want to think too much ahead.”