The second season of the Women’s Premier League – the first to be played in two separate cities – will kick off in Bangalore on Friday. Once the initial buzz dies down, for India’s T20I setup, reality must also set in.
As of now, as per the updated Future Tours’ Programme (FTP), no bilateral cricket is scheduled for India till the end of August, with a lot of down-time post WPL. So, this edition will likely play a crucial preparatory role ahead of the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh that starts in September; not just from a talent-scoping perspective, but also considering the underperformance of some of the side’s biggest stars.
India had gone over a year without a full-time coaching staff, including last year’s T20 World Cup. New head coach Amol Muzumdar was appointed right before a bumper home season recently, and there were a few new faces that came into the set-up.
But largely, the combinations and performances did not work. India won just two out of nine white ball games at home against England and Australia. Now, Muzumdar and co will have their eye on performances in the franchise league to plug holes in the side, and potentially take some tough calls if the form of the team’s old guard does not show any upturn.
While India’s batting order in general has not shown signs of much life over the past 12 months, chief among those under the scanner is skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.
Across her last nine T20I innings since last year’s World Cup, Harmanpreet has scored just 146 runs, striking at 107.35 with only one 50+ score. She has been dismissed for single-digit scores five times in that period. In ODIs, too her form has dipped.
Signs of tetchiness have also shown with fiery, at times bizarre, incidents on the field, and some of her captaincy calls have also been debatable. As captain, and middle-order enforcer of the defending champions Mumbai Indians, Harmanpreet must use the WPL to address her slump. Failure to do so may cause a few headaches for India too.
Since breaking through into the team thanks to her aggressive batting style as a teenager, Delhi Capitals opener Shafali Verma’s recent inconsistencies reached a point where she was dropped from the last two ODIs against Australia in December. She continues to be a mainstay of the T20 team though, especially when she can contribute a few overs as a spinner, but a solid WPL season is needed to bolster that status.
Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper and opener Smriti Mandhana has been India’s top runscorer in the past year, with 302 runs in 12 innings. But with only one 50+ score during that run, she has struggled to convert starts, something she, and Team India, will hope is corrected during this tournament.
If India are to have any chance of doing well at the World Cup, these three must show in the WPL that they can deliver.
Due to their lack of power hitters in the lower-middle order, India have persistently come up short while chasing challenging totals or attempting to put up big scores on good wickets in recent times. Since the last World Cup alone, Australia’s average scoring rate in T20Is is 8.39 while India go at 6.80 RPO. The numbers might be skewed by the three T20Is in Bangladesh, nevertheless, in this period India have been outscored by Australia, England, South Africa and West Indies. Boundary-hitting and dot-ball frequency are big areas of concern.
India entrusted Deepti Sharma in the finisher role in most of the six recent T20Is against England and Australia. Not only has she failed to register significant scores (84 runs in 8 innings since July), but there have been no useful cameos either, with her striking at a dismal rate of 88.09. In the WPL last year, she scored 90 runs in 9 innings at a strike rate of 83.33.
Deepti’s consistency with the ball and composure when called upon in death overs, and her fielding, mean her place in the side is not in question. But as a batter, and especially as a finisher in T20s, she can hardly be relied upon anymore. She must attempt to address that in this tournament.
If India are holding out hope for a breakthrough performance, it would be the emergence of a power hitter or solid finisher during this WPL. Kanika Ahuja, who was drafted into the Indian squads post her WPL performances where she showed good striking abilities, will miss out this edition due to injury. India desperately need someone to complement Richa Ghosh when it comes to going big in the backend, and anyone who can excel in that area could well come into the national team reckoning.
Perhaps one of the positives of India’s last three series has been the emergence of talented spinners, the area of the squad where there has been some recent experimentation.
For the World Cup, slow turners can be expected to be rolled out in the vein of the Mirpur pitch where India played three ODIs and three T20Is in July last year.
Minnu Mani, Saika Ishaque (a standout from last year’s WPL), and Mannat Kashyap all got debuts recently, while Shreyanka Patil has quickly established herself as a mainstay. But keep an eye out for some of the forgotten names like Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Ekta Bisht and Poonam Yadav as well. Radha, especially with her improved batting numbers during the domestic season, could make a strong case if she gets regular game time for Delhi.
In terms of seamers, Renuka Thakur’s reliability has been matched by Titas Sadhu, but it will be the spin options that will likely determine India’s fate in Bangladesh.
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