Throughout the tournament, Team India has been over-reliant on the top-order, especially openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, which meant that any early breakthroughs by the opposition exposed the fragile middle order, stalling the run rate and preventing the team from posting an imposing total.
Except against the Netherlands and Bangladesh, posting a total of 209/5 and chasing down a 139-run target with 19 balls to spare, respectively, the Women in Blue’s middle order didn’t capitalise on the aggressive starts by the openers. Since the middle-order batters, especially skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Richa Ghosh, and Jemimah Rodrigues, failed to find the boundary consistently, the team’s scoring rate drastically plummeted during the middle overs against quality bowling attacks.
Additionally, the unsettled batting order, particularly Jemimah’s frequent shuffling between the number three and four positions, and Yastika Bhatia’s No.3 spot despite a lack of firepower, exposed a rigid tactical approach that failed to adapt to modern T20 tempo and requirements, ultimately stranding the team with sub-par totals.