India’s imbalance with the combination was exposed in the last two games against South Africa and Australia and even though the Women in Blue are still well-placed to qualify for the semi-finals, they will have to start winning the big games to still be counted among the contenders.
Former England skipper Nasser Hussain was pretty candid chilling in his hotel room in Colombo two days out from the crunch India-England clash in Indore in the ongoing Women’s World Cup, a tournament which is turning out to be a damp squib because of the incessant rains in Colombo. It has been nearly a week since the hosts India were in action last and the captain Harmanpreet Kaur and coach Amol Mazumdar would have had some time to reflect on the successive defeats to Australia and South Africa in Vizag, which has put a kind of a hitch in the Women in Blue’s campaign which began with a couple of wins.
Eight batters, five bowlers or seven batters or six bowlers? Australia are blessed with the likes of Annabel Sutherland, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham and Sophie Molineux and don’t have to ever worry about the balance of the side but the likes of India have to and the lack of a proper sixth bowling option has hurt in the last two games Australia and South Africa. India have been good but not good enough and according to Nasser, the issue would be resolved if the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur could bowl just a bit in the middle overs.
Responding to indiatvnews.com’s query onย JioStar Press Room, ahead of the India vs England clash about a possible addition of Renuka Singh Thakur, the frontline pacer, Nasser suggested that lack of an extra batter might have an adverse effect on the top-order’s batting approach, which might not necessarily be a great one, especially if winning the World Cup is India’s aim.
‘You’ve got to beat Australia to win the World Cup’ – Nasser
“What you lose on one, you gain with the other. It is a little bit swings and roundabouts. If you have Renuka Singh Thakur, you have the extra bowler, obviously. But what you donโt want is Smriti Mandhana or the top three of Pratika or Harleen to think โRight, okay weโve got one batter less, weโve just got to be a bit more cautious here’ because I donโt think cautious is going to win you this World Cup,” Nasser said.
“To win this World Cup, you gonna have to beat Australia, in my opinion. And to beat Australia, cautious cricket doesnโt get you over the line. So, Iโd rather have every single one of those batters thinking, โCrickey, look at that line-up weโve got, we could have Sneh Rana at 9 or 10 or whatever it may be, letโs go. Letโs go at this England side, letโs go at this New Zealand side, letโs go at the Bangladesh side, letโs go at Australia or whoever in a semi-final,” the 57-year-old added while pushing the case for Harmanpreet playing the role what Alice Capsey is doing for England, while batting at No 7.
“Iโll probably get Harmanpreet bowling a lot in the nets. Harmanpreet can get through just five overs, thatโs all you are asking for. Just five overs. Alice Capsey isnโt bowling 10 overs, just get through five overs of off-spin when maybe a wicket falls, a new batter comes in, left-hander maybe – bang, bang, bang, bang and then suddenly youโve got a few overs up your sleeve,” he further said.
Nasser then threw in another option of pushing the likes of Richa Ghosh and Sneh Rana up by one spot if they were to have Renuka in the side, but that would mean Harleen Deol likely sitting out and that might just affect the openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal’s mindset as to how to approach the opening partnership given that there would be one less proper batter.
England nearly lost their previous clash against Pakistan but were saved by rain, can they increase India’s misery? A cracker is on the cards in Indore!
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