India are second favourites in home ODI World Cup, cannot boast of home advantage: Anjum Chopra

With the next edition of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup now around the corner, the conversation in women’s international cricket has shifted to which teams can be potential title favourites, along with seven-time champions, Australia. The 2025 edition will be played in India and Sri Lanka, so India of course are being counted in that shortlist of favourites. This is the fourth time India will be hosting the tournament, but they are yet to win it. Could this edition finally end a fifty-two year jinx?

The recent triumph in England, where the women’s team won both the T20I and the ODI series , was no doubt a huge shot in the arm, a massive confidence booster ahead of a home World Cup. But there are still areas that need improvement.

In a freewheeling exclusive chat with Firstpost, Indian cricket legend and former captain, Anjum Chopra, who played over 150 international matches and scored over 3600 runs, spoke about individual Indian players and what they bring to the table, including current captain Harmanpreet Kaur , what the team needs to do as a collective unit to become stronger, the ‘who will be captain after Harman?’ debate, the potential title favourites to watch out for in the upcoming women’s ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka and more.

This is Part 2 of an exclusive interview with Anjum Chopra.

Click here to read Part 1 of the exclusive interview with Anjum Chopra.

Could you decode for us what some of the individual Indian all-rounders and bowlers bring to the table? Also, what the Indian team needs to focus on, in terms of personnel, the most, in the run-up to the ODI World Cup at home…

Anjum: For me, Sneh Rana is a great value-add. She has missed out on international cricket over the last two years. I don’t see her as the best fit in T20Is, but because of her bowling skills, she is a great asset. And because we are now heading into an ODI World Cup, I think she (Sneh Rana) is a great value-add to the Indian team. I am glad she has been in the playing XI, because she adds a lot of depth. But we still need fast bowlers because every condition (that the team plays in) will not allow spin to dominate and with five bowlers, you are always living life on the edge. Some day one of them will have a bad day and then the Indian team will not have a fallback option.

Nowadays, when targets in ODIs can go up to 300-320, when you are under the pump as a bowling unit, you will need to rely on your sixth bowler and the likes of Pratika (Rawal) and Shafali (Verma) are not (really) sixth bowling options. So, yes, spin will play a very crucial role (in the upcoming Women’s ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka). Deepti (Sharma), Charani and Sneh Rana - they walk into an Indian team today.

For Radha Yadav, I feel she is a great asset in the field. She is a very good batter as well, very good overall T20 player, but she still needs to improve on her bowling – in both T20Is and ODIs – and that is probably one of the reasons why Shree Charani was drafted in as well. All the visiting teams who come in (for the ODI World Cup) will know that they will have to go after at least one of the spinners. But even if they play one of the spinners carefully, they will attack our fast bowlers. So, India does need a sixth bowling option and that has to be in the form of a seam bowler. Arundhati Reddy was not their first choice and didn’t play the first ODI (was brought in for the second ODI and then dropped again for the third), which clearly shows that they are looking at giving a younger bowler a chance. So, whoever comes in will actually have to be an all-rounder and not an out-and-out fast bowler, because otherwise the balance of the team will be disturbed.

The sixth bowling option has actually been a massive concern for the team for a while now. Whatever the reason, the Indian team doesn’t have that solid back-up option to the five frontline bowlers. And none of the top order bowls, which is another concern. Harmanpreet (Kaur) has stopped bowling – whatever the reasons might be. Harleen has never grown into an all-rounder. That is the reason why Harleen is not a consistent playing XI member, because she doesn’t bowl. And whether it’s Shafali (Verma) or Pratika (Rawal), they have not really worked on their (bowling) skills. If Jemimah (Rodrigues) doesn’t score runs, she will miss out on a playing XI, because then Harleen (Deol) will come in. And then you need another bowler.

For Smriti, World Cups have not been her domain yet. She hasn’t really performed (in World Cups). I don’t want to highlight this point of course, but again, the consistency factor comes in. You need your best players to stand up and perform, when it’s (most) needed. Have they stood up? They themselves know the answer. Everyone else also knows the answer. We might choose not to talk about this too much or highlight it, but in their hearts, everybody knows everything.

That definitely happens. Often, we see that when a player enters the quote-unquote ‘star’ category, even fair criticism stops. There is no critiquing that happens anymore, as such, because the thought process is that if you critically analyse a ‘star’ player’s performance, you are somehow doing something you are not meant to do. The fact that critical analysis is not a form of attack and that it’s in fact a way to understand what is going wrong and why is somehow lost on most people.

Anjum: 100%. If I am sitting in the opposition dressing room, I know how to get a player out, I know where she will falter. The reason we don’t criticise is because – A. we don’t know if there is another option. B. We like to create stars, because if there are no stars, people are not following the sport, so we create stars. Sometimes we talk endlessly about certain players, even when they are dropped. Deepti Sharma is the biggest performer in the Indian dressing room, but because she might not fall into the ‘glamourous’ category, people might not talk about her too much. But just look at Deepti’s performance as an all-rounder – she is the biggest star in the (Indian) dressing room.

We don’t have a bigger match-winner than her, but no one really talks about her like that. People in the dressing room need to be honest with themselves and the selectors need to be on the same page as well.

Let’s talk about who the next leader of the Indian team will be after Harmanpreet. Smriti of course has been talked about as the next captain of the Indian women’s team, after Harman. Will it be as simple as a passing of the baton from one star player to another? How do you see the change in leadership happening whenever Harman brings the curtain down on her career or decides to step down as captain?

Anjum: So, in this present team, obviously, everyone looks at Smriti and the fact that she has been in a captain’s position more than anyone else (barring Harmanpreet). The Indian team has to remain in the present first. In the present scenario, anyone who is a regular in the three formats will be looked at (as potential future captains).

Now, there are very few players who are regulars in all three formats. You can count Jemimah Rodrigues as a regular, Deepti Sharma, Harleen Deol is getting there and then there are Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet, of course. There aren’t too many players on that list. So, whenever the captaincy shift happens, someone who is a regular in that line-up should be given the baton to carry it forward and it has to be between these 3-4 players, considering they remain the consistent ones (across all three formats) going forward. I have never been a big believer in looking too far ahead. I have never been like that. The reason I have never been like that is because the Indian women’s cricket team hasn’t evolved as much as the men’s cricket team has evolved.

We are not World Champions. We don’t have the kind of depth (as the men’s team) where Shubman (Gill) goes out, Sai Sudharsan comes in, Rishabh (Pant) goes out, (Dhruv) Jurel comes in – the women’s team hasn’t reached that stage yet. We will take time to get there. For an Australian team to look at someone like Tahlia McGrath (all-rounder and current Australian vice-captain) as a future captain – there is a question mark there too, even though she is a consistent performer, so they have someone like a Beth Mooney (Aussie batter who plays all three formats) as back-up. So, the Indian team has to stay in the present and ensure that the results keep going their way, so that the bench-strength keeps getting better. It has to be a top-down approach. As a unit, they need to be well-oiled. Which is why who is in your support staff becomes extremely crucial. So, the players, they have to be groomed. How much of that is happening is anybody’s guess.

I still feel that there are no clear favourites in this Indian line-up to become the next captain, but one of the above has to become, because they are regulars in the Indian team.  I think the Indian team will take another 5-7 years at least, from where we are now, before we reach a stage where we try somebody else as a T20I captain and have a separate Test and ODI captain, somebody who is rock-solid in these formats.

A word on Harman - the all-rounder and the captain. She hasn’t bowled regularly in a while and we would all like to see her bowl a bit more, perhaps. I am not sure why she is not bowling, as such. On the recent tour of England, she didn’t play the first T20I, but overall, in the other games, she didn’t really make a mark with the bat and also didn’t bowl at all. In the first ODI, she fell for 17 and then of course she played a fantastic knock in the 3rd ODI, scoring a century. Where does Harman’s game stand as of now, according to you?

Anjum: So, Harman as captain is a no-brainer. She has to be the captain. For me, personally, from when she (Harmanpreet) walked into the Indian team in 2009, she was a match-winner at that time itself. In fact, she has been a match-winner from the time she walked into an Indian camp or an Indian team. That is why she has been my favourite cricketer from the time I saw her first as an Under-19 player. Sometimes you have a connect with another player and I instantly had that connect with her. And that is still true for me. I feel she has been the biggest match-winner in the country and one of the biggest and best match-winners in world cricket overall. But, over the last few years, whether it’s because of injuries, and she is injury-prone, or anything else (she hasn’t hit her stride).

Now, currently it’s the last stretch and as a cricketer, when you walk out to the middle, you have to understand that every match could potentially be your last match at that venue and you have to contribute. She has not been doing justice to the kind of talent that she has - the kind of expectations we have of her as Harmanpreet Kaur, the player. And that is not good for Indian cricket. Despite her non-performance, the Indian team has done well. Harman has to tell herself and understand the fact that her missing out on scoring or not bowling is not helping either her or the team. She has to be fit enough to perform in all departments. She has to bowl, she has to bat and she has to score runs. Whether it’s the fitness trainer who is doing it or you are doing it yourself, you have to take care of your body.

Now there is no comfort zone, now is the last 20m burst before you cross the finish line and in the last 20m you give it your all, you don’t save your energy. The kind of dismissals that I have seen of hers in the last two years or so have been very similar. Now, whether it’s because of an injury that she has had to change her style of play or whether her style of play has changed because her concentration span has reduced with age – the older you get, you have to keep switching on and off – it’s something that she needs to work on.

She can play a match phase by phase and India need that, but she is missing out on that. Yes, she has played good knocks, but the consistency has been missing. I saw the 66 runs that she scored for the Mumbai Indians in the last edition of the WPL (in the final) and it was a match-winning contribution. That is the kind of contribution we need to see from her in 50-over cricket also.

You should be fully fit and be able to fire on all cylinders when you are playing for India. I had a brief chat with her recently and I told her – ‘this is your last stretch, make sure you finish on a high.’ And she also understands that. If Harman and Harleen start bowling a few overs, we are there. In the 2011 men’s ODI World Cup, which we won at home, Yuvraj (Singh) bowled (15 wickets in 9 matches), Suresh Raina bowled a few overs (2 overs and took 1 wicket). Why is a player like Harleen underutilising her skills as a bowler? I have seen her from her junior cricket days, she used to be a leg-spinner. Where is that skill now? You can’t let a skill just wither away. Bowl a few overs. For Harman also – she needs to introspect, talk to herself. She has to understand how crucial a member of the Indian team she is and because she is the captain, things will be expected of her.

Shubman Gill knows things are expected of him. To make 400 plus runs in one Test match – that is a testament to not only your skill, but also your fitness. The concentration levels of course will be different, because Harman is older, but because you are an Indian captain, you have to take a step back and understand how you can contribute and how you will be able to get through those 100 or 40 overs. That is your own homework.

Now, when it comes to cricket, one thing that has historically been talked about a fair bit ahead of any big tournament is home conditions. Whether those conditions actually help the home team when they are up against the best in the world etc. is a different conversation. But, going by the fact that the next edition of the women’s ODI World Cup will be played in India (and Sri Lanka) and that the tournament will be played in the round-robin format, where would you put the Indian team in the pecking order of title favourites?

Anjum: India, I think will be second favourites, simply because Australia (7-time champions) will be the team to beat. Also, for the fans, India will be the number one favourites. But India is also one country which cannot boast of home advantage anymore, whether it’s in the men’s game or the women’s game, because everyone comes here and plays so much cricket throughout the year. Also, in the women’s game, the nature of the pitches that we play on is a very big factor. If the pitches are not the best, if they are too challenging, then you will not enjoy watching women’s cricket. Women’s cricket is best enjoyed when the conditions are very good for batting and the surface is very true. It’s like how we expect a pitch to be in a T20 match in men’s cricket.

I am not saying it shouldn’t be good for bowling, but it should (definitely) be good for batting. That’s when you will see a good contest. Now, because, by and large the conditions in India will be good, they won’t really be alien to anyone. So, we cannot really boast of home advantage, as such. But yes, there will always be an underlying, unspoken comfort zone, which we as an Indian team will always have is that we know we are playing in our country – wherever we turn, we will have support. In a foreign land, you will only have the support of the 20-30 people who travel with you and then parts of the crowd at the matches. Here, everything is very familiar. That confidence cannot be taken away from a home team and also cannot be given to any foreign player who plays regularly in India. Since the (upcoming) World Cup is being played in a round-robin format, so every match will be essential, NRR will be important, what if one of your matches is washed out etc. – everything becomes important. Plus, India will be playing in all the venues (five venues across India and Sri Lanka), like in the 2023 men’s ODI World Cup (in India across 10 venues). So, the women’s team will need to adapt very quickly – from Indore to Bengaluru to Colombo to Guwahati – the conditions will change. Which is also why I said earlier that the team shouldn’t rely on just spinners (in the bowling department), you must always have a backup option.

I feel New Zealand will also be a good team (at the World Cup). They have won the T20 World Cup (2024). They will have experienced players in their line-up, they should have the spinners who have done well in UAE conditions. They are not talked about a lot, but they are a good team. They have strong, powerful batters. The South African players are also very well versed with the Indian conditions, which can be conducive for their bowling line-up. Now they also have a leg-spinner who they have started picking (19-year-old Seshnie Naidu). Also, let’s not count out a team like Sri Lanka. They might not be on the shortlist of title favourites, but they will be playing a few matches in home conditions. They created problems for South Africa and they can do the same to other teams also.

The round-robin format will always ask a team to be at their best, always. So, the Indian team too have to be at their best. They need to rest well, prepare well. They will need to have all their bases covered in batting, bowling. The templates might need to change depending on the opposition and game plans.