"Not Just To Participate...": Former India Captain Anjum Chopra Gives Brutal 'Underprepared' Verdict On Harmanpreet Kaur-Led Side
India crashed out of the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 in the group stage.
Before the Indian team's departure to the UAE for the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur claimed that the 15-member side was the best group ever playing the showpiece event in the shortest format. But all of it came crashing down when India lost to 58 runs by New Zealand in their tournament opener at Dubai and from there, they were just playing catch up till the writing on the wall came clear: of them suffering a group-stage exit in the T20 World Cups for the first time since 2016.
Former India captain Anjum Chopra said the side hasn't really found success in playing the shortest format, whether individually or as a whole unit, leading to their early exit from the T20 World Cup.
“I do feel that Indian team is a work in progress in terms of playing T20 cricket. They still haven't been able to crack that code individually and collectively as to how to play T20 cricket.”
“Certain players, starting with Harmanpreet Kaur, because she plays in the middle order or probably sometimes at the top order, she knows exactly when she has to pace the innings. But I can't say the same for everyone else. It's not just because they've lost in the World Cup. I've said these words even before that Indian team is a work in progress.”
“When they played their first match against New Zealand, I thought they were a little underprepared and possibly they didn't expect New Zealand to come hard at them, which is again very wrong. It's because when you're playing a World Cup, you have to expect every team that they are also in the World Cup scenario to win it, not just to participate. So that was wrong.”
“Then once that realisation happened when New Zealand started hitting the way they were attacking the ball, I felt the awareness of them to quickly turn things around and maybe bat much better than what they fielded, it didn't happen. The shell shock approach from the first two overs till the 40th over was just there, very much visible for the Indian team,” says Anjum in an exclusive conversation with IANS from Dubai.
She also pointed out that India never the feel of a team who were there in the UAE to win the tournament. “So once they had that setback, coming against Pakistan was just about winning for them, which I thought was a very defensive approach. You can expect that also to happen because you've just lost the first game.”
“Now you're trying to stay in contention in the tournament. Then again, Sri Lanka, there was a slightly much better performance, but not a convincing performance individually. By the time Australia came, you needed all units to fire.”
“Australia will not give you opportunities to come back in a contest or maybe give an iota, especially when they know that they were missing their captain. So in totality, I thought they were behind the game rather than being ahead of the game and that was there throughout the tournament.”
“So individually, I don't think they had arrived the way. If you want to win a World Championship, you arrive for it. Yes, Australia has a stronger team. We all know that, but at least arrive for the tournament in a style that or in a manner that you're there it to win it, not just to participate, but that didn't happen with the Indian team.”
This year, India played T20 series against Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa, before becoming runners-up in Asia Cup. Strangely, they didn't play an international game after that till the clash against New Zealand happened on October 6. Instead, India had two preparatory camps at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
While one camp was around fielding and fitness, along with a sports psychologist coming in, the other had skills work at the forefront, apart from five intra-squad games held in Bengaluru. But Anjum felt despite all the preparations, similar mistakes which caused India's downfall previously had come back all over again in the UAE.
“I felt that the mistakes or staying behind the game, what was there in the earlier T20 events or a World Cup still happened there. You can't keep doing the same mistake. Then that means either your preparation is incomplete or you haven't learnt the skill.”
“The same mistakes cannot happen again and again. If the same mistake is happening, then definitely there is a miss in either the skill level or preparation or adaptation. So that needs to be identified and that needs to be clubbed. Changing people, and setups is not going to just solve it.”
“We have everything in our country. BCCI provides us with everything in our country from preparation to games to whatever a player requires to become a world champion. So I think that's taken care of. It's up to how, as players, they're able to utilize everything to their advantage,” she concluded.
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