The buzzwords around the Indian camp, especially after the Women’s T20 World Cup debacle, has been rethinking strategies. And for a team that has not lived up to its high-potential billing in the shortest format, there is no better time for a rethink than the present, especially with the T20 Asia Cup, Asian Games and the ICC Champions Trophy (20 overs) lined up.
For all the talk about fearlessness, India have at times switched into a cautious approach in crunch situations. And that has contributed to their early exit in major T20 events.
While an aggressive approach has been debated often, former India captain Anjum Chopra feels the Women in Blue do not possess the resources to completely adopt that doctrine.
“To change the mindset completely, you have to have those kind of players, which obviously we don’t have in abundance. That’s a very honest fact,” Chopra said in an interaction arranged by Sony Sports Network.
“But I do agree with the kind of aggression T20s allows you to play, that has not gone straight away into the DNA for the Indian team yet. I’m saying yet because we have players like Richa Ghosh in the setup. But for that to change, we need players who have that kind of power, demeanour and intent.”
However, Chopra agrees that the Indian side will have to eventually take that route with the fluctuating demands of T20 cricket.
“Slowly and steadily, the Indian team will obviously want to move in that direction. It is also about improving your skills. Now that there are more T20s, you have to adapt if you want to remain in the setup, and there is no way out.”
With India failing to make back-to-back T20 World Cup semifinals, questions about Harmanpreet Kaur’s future as captain has been making rounds. Chopra, though, feels India has far more issues to worry about than who is at the helm.
“I feel Harmanpreet is the best to lead India at the moment. I am happy that the side has many leaders, but India is not jostling for leadership, India is jostling for staying counted in the T20 game. That is more important than saying make someone else a captain.
“If you have to rotate captains for silverware, I would also say we can have a new captain for every ICC tournament. So why change captain? There are other issues in this team that need to be worked upon consciously.”
After Jemimah Rodrigues was ruled out of the Asia Cup and Asiad, the management picked Pratika Rawal as a replacement, one with no international T20 experience, and that came as a surprise for Chopra.
“I was surprised that she (Pratika) was picked as the replacement. It is not that she can’t play, but she’s not been playing T20s. For someone who has not played a lot of cricket in recent times, it is not ideal to get her into the T20 Indian side straight away.”