Harmanpreet Kaur’s India women’s cricket team claimed a rather comfortable 20-run victory in their Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up match over the West Indies. Facing the 2016 champions at the Dubai Stadium, a venue where they’ll play 3 of their 4 group stage matches, Team India weren’t at their best with the bat. Bowling wasn’t perfect either, but 5 of the 7 bowlers used were splendid.
The batting failure wasn’t an aberration. For a little while now, openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma have given a rollicking start, which has been aided by Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh at numbers 5 and 6. The point of concern isn’t Deepti Sharma either, who comes to bat after Jemimah and Richa, but the two batters that come between them and the openers.
Against the West Indies, only Rodrigues looked good. She scored a gritty half-century, which helped Team India reach 141 while none of the other batters even crossed the 25-run mark. We also saw another shuffle in the batting order. We have seen batters come and go at the number 3 spot since Yastika Bhatia got injured in April.
Batting order re-shuffled
Dayalan Hemalatha, Uma Chetry and Sajana Sajeevan were all at number 3 in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in Yastika’s absence. However, none of them seemed to get going. Despite her coming back, yesterday, Harmanpreet Kaur tried her hand at the position but lasted just 3 balls. This meant that Jemimah moved to four and Yastika went down to 5.
With just one more warm-up game left before they face New Zealand on October 4, one has to question why they are trying new things now. If Yastika played at 3 until April, why can’t she do it now? Her game isn’t suited at number 5, as she lacks the power game one needs at the end of the innings. She needs to get her eye in before she can get going, and you can’t do that at 5 unless you lose early wickets.
Also, Harmanpreet herself isn’t in the greatest of touch. Since 2019, she has scored runs at a strike rate of 120 once. She didn’t even receive a bid in the Women’s Hundred and Big Bash auction; that’s how far she’s fallen. Moreover, she’s been batting at 4 for a while now. 2474 of her 3426 WT20I runs have come in that position; why does she need to promote herself when she’s struggling to make big runs and strike quickly?
People are labeling Team India as one of the favourites for the Women’s World Cup 2024, but if they are chopping and changing just 4 days before the event starts, how confident can one be of their chances?
India’s squad for Women’s T20 World Cup 2024
Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh Thakur, Dayalan Hemalatha, Asha Sobhana, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Sajana Sajeevan.
India’s Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 Schedule
| Date | Team 1 | Team 2 | Venue | Time (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 4 | India | New Zealand | Dubai | 7:30 |
| October 6 | India | Pakistan | Dubai | 3:30 |
| October 9 | India | Sri Lanka | Dubai | 7:30 |
| October 13 | India | Australia | Sharjah | 7:30 |
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