Women's T20 World Cup 2024: India's fielding, batting remain a worry after heavy defeat to New Zealand in opener

Amidst all the hype, build-up, and what seemed like a positive atmosphere if captain Harmanpreet Kaur's words at the pre-departure press conference are to go by, India’s performance in their 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup opener against New Zealand in Dubai on Friday was rather underwhelming.

Apart from Renuka Singh’s (2/27) and Asha Sobhana’s (1/22) spells with the ball, there was pretty much nothing positive that the Women in Blue can takeaway from their 58-run loss to New Zealand on Friday. A loss in such a fashion was rather anti-climatic — many would have expected India to put up a fight, to showcase their mettle against the White Ferns and what not.

As it happened |   India vs New Zealand, 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup Group A

After-all, we’re talking about a New Zealand side that had lost 10 consecutive matches coming into the Women’s T20 World Cup. And this same New Zealand side produced an all-round display to thump India, one of the top-ranked teams at the tournament. For New Zealand, beating an Indian side that boasts of aggressive openers like Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, or versatile cricketers like Harmanpreet, Asha Sobhana and Deepti Sharma, was no mean feat.

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More so, India’s loss on Friday is likely to dampen the team’s chances quite significantly. We might be just one match into the group stage, but India have a difficult road ahead in the group stage — with Pakistan (6 October), Sri Lanka (9 October) and Australia (13 October) up next.

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Where India went wrong on Friday

Fielding. It’s not just the batters who have got to take the blame for India’s loss to New Zealand, but the team’s below-par fielding effort as well. And this is not a new issue for India. India were victims of poor fielding at the 2024 Women’s Asia Cup tournament in Dambulla in July. Almost three months later, it’s quite disheartening to see that this problem persists.

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It was in the powerplay on Friday when India missed an ample amount of catching opportunities, some of which in fact, would have been good catching practice. Take Richa Ghosh for example. Arundhati Reddy delivered a length ball to Richa in the sixth over to Suzie Bates, who looked to heave towards the leg side. However, Bates ended up top-edging it towards wicketkeeper Ghosh, who for one second got hold of the ball but fumbled in the end.

On another instance, Renuka mis-fielded, allowing the ball to travel between her hands en route to the boundary. This, when it should have been a simple chance to stop the ball.

Fielding was in fact a major area of focus for Team India during a training camp at Bengaluru’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) before the T20 World Cup. However, it’s safe to say that Indian fielders have been caught napping.

India yet to tick all boxes

”This is the best team we are going forward with. The players have been playing together for a long time. For us we came so close last time and lost in semis (2023).

”We have ticked all the boxes in terms of preparation compared to the small things were not there maybe in earlier editions,” Harmanpreet had said at the pre-departure press conference in Mumbai last month.

But the bigger question is, have they really done so? There were hardly any signs of India having ticked all boxes on Friday, because had that been the case, Harmanpreet and Co would have been celebrating their first win of this edition.

Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 | Harmanpreet says no room for mistakes after India's loss to New Zealand

In the larger context, this game was decided in how both New Zealand and India approached the powerplays. Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer powered New Zealand to 55/0 in their powerplay. India, on the other hand, had already lost three of their premier top-order batters in the powerplay —Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur.

Once this trio was dismissed, it was up to Jemimah Rodrigues and Ghosh to navigate India ahead in the chase. These two batters are generally known for playing some free-flowing cricket, but Friday was not that kind of a day.

As the match progressed, the Dubai track started becoming slower in nature, making it difficult for batters to negotiate with the ball. Having said that, a majority of the Indian batters ended up enduring soft dismissals due to poor shot selections. Jemimah, Smriti and Deepti all went for lofted shots and were out in doing so.  Sure, dealing with tricky surfaces is something Indian batters need to work on, but a lot of it also depends on the aggressiveness of some of these batters, which many of them lacked.

So much so that, it was almost predictable as to what would happen after India’s powerplay on Friday, but nobody would have seen this kind of a collapse coming from the Women in Blue.

Just like what Harmanpreet said after the match, India cannot afford any more mistakes. The stakes in Group A, dubbed as the Group of Death, are high, and the road will only get tougher. After-all, only the top two teams progress to the semi-finals from each group and India’s Net Run Rate of -2.900 does not help their cause, at least for now.

Needless to say, India need victories by fine margins in their next three matches if they want to avoid a group stage exit. And a collective, flawless effort is a must.