ODI horror continues for Indian Women’s Team; to play their next ODI match in December 2024
Yastika Bhatia (Source – Twitter)
Harmanpreet Kaur and the team had a fantastic outing against England last month, winning two consecutive test matches at home. However, white ball cricket is still a massive concern for the team as the Aussies defeated the Indian team 3-0. The clean sweep at the home ground sparked a lot of controversies as the team fell behind in all the departments: batting, bowling, and fielding.
As the World Cup approaches in about 18 months, the head coach, Amol Muzumdar, has to find answers as to why the team is lagging. Moreover, the team has one more thing to be concerned about. After the Australia series, the Indian Women’s team has their next ODI match in December 2024. The Indian Cricket Board has not specified why the team doesn’t have any ODI matches shortly, considering the upcoming World Cup campaign.
While 2023 was an excellent year for the men’s team, the women’s team got only five ODI matches, including the two ODIs against Australia in the last two weeks. While the head coach mentioned the camps for the team, not enough match practice could again lead to a failed tournament. It’s high time for the Board to take up this issue and try to come up with a solution before the World Cup season arrives.
Positives from the ODI series
As the team lost the ODI series, they had very few takeaways. The batting, bowling, and fielding lagged throughout the series. However, the debutant Shreyanka Patil looked in good touch in the third ODI, where she took three wickets. Deepthi Sharma’s excellent bowling is also a plus point for India. Nonetheless, India has to improve on many things, from bowling in death overs to fielding.
“That’s one area where I feel we need to have a look in and improve ourselves going forward, is the death overs, whether it is batting or bowling. We’ll be working hard on that.” Muzumdar was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
