What Indian cricket can learn from Australian women's team

Australia didn’t have a good ICC Women’s World Cup. They had a cracking tournament.

They didn’t just beat teams. They crushed them.

They didn’t come into this tournament as favourites. They came into the tournament knowing they would win it.

The praise may seem high-handed, but Australia, in the words of their captain Jodie Fields, “proved that they are the No.1 team in the world.”

The proof was in the gleaming trophy next to her, and the slight smile that touched her lips — something that you don’t see very often. Across the history of men’s and women’s cricket, she’s the only captain to have enabled her team to hold both the World T20 and the ODI World Cup trophies at the same time.

And while the win doesn’t quite affect the India vs Australia series featuring the men’s team, there are lessons to be learnt from their setup. Take it as a slap in your face, or swallow it as a bitter pill — the truth is that Australia women’s cricket can teach a thing or two to the Indians.

Team selection: Australia’s team selection was ruthless. And the best example provided was in the final. Holly Ferling, the find of the tournament at just 17-years-old had taken nine wickets in four games before the final. But Ellyse Perry, the golden girl of Australian cricket and Ferling’s idol, took to the field with a nagging ankle and the pressure to justify her selection.

After scoring 25 runs from 22 balls and taking three wickets in her first three overs, no one was asking any questions. Not even after Perry pulled up after attempting her first two deliveries. ‘Run it off,’ must have been the advice from her skipper. And she did it, and how.

Simply put, reputations are nothing.

Attack, attack, attack: Cricket is about winning. Cricket is not about Ravichandran Ashwin opting for a draw when he could have gone for a win or Mahendra Singh Dhoni going for a draw as a safety first option. For cricket to become a global game, you need it to be exciting while retaining it’s grace. And Jodie Fields’ captaincy is perfect for this. Perry’s first three overs were so damaging that it almost guaranteed a win. But rather than bring on a part-time bowler, she kept on attacking and even brought on her best spinner Lisa Sthalekar to keep up the attack from the other end.

And as soon as they’re taken off, Merissa Aguilleira and Deandra Dottin hammer a couple of sixes in the next two overs. What would MS Dhoni do at this stage? Bring in one of those ‘handy’ bowlers? Maybe Suresh Raina? Whatever it is, he wouldn’t bring back Perry and Sthalekar immediately. But Australia did, in the blink of an eye, and the both Merissa and Dottin were bowled at the change. Classic.

Fielding strategy: In the day and age of power-plays, it becomes increasingly complicated to set a field. An attacking field at that. But Australia happened to surprise everyone with the number of fielders they placed in close range. There was no “I didn’t have a silly point but how many balls went there?” type of mentality. This Aussie squad only knows that they need to choke the opposition, make them play, force an error and get a wicket.

After the match, Fields was asked whether how she maintains this sort of approach when teams around her would choose to play safe. “This is my style and I’m not going to change it too much too soon.”

All those rules supporting batting do not matter. A field needs to be placed to make something happen and Australia did it again and again.

Desire to win: As explained brilliantly  in this piece  by Ashish Magotra, India sometimes look lost in the current regime. What are we playing for? To win? Or to avoid defeat? Are we ready to risk losing in the quest for a win?

The Super Six match against the West Indies was meaningless for Australia. They were already in the final. But they went for a win. They played a full-strength squad — Meg Lanning and Rachel Haynes and Sthalekar — all the stars.

And they slumped to their first defeat in the tournament.

After the match, as the batters trudged off the park, one could see the Australian team — shoulders drooping, no team huddle, no smiles, no show of ‘it doesn’t matter, we’re already in the final’. After the match, Fields, with her usual stiff expression said: “We’re very disappointed. We wanted to go to the final undefeated. We need to play a better brand of cricket at the final.”

Planning, long term: “We had a bad campaign in 2009, and since then, Cricket Australia has focused on us being prepared for 2013.”

And certainly so. Australia believe that not winning in 2009 at home was a massive failure. So they went all out to prepare for this series. What is a massive failure for India? The tour to India in March and the World T20 in Sri Lanka were all just preparations. The focus was on one mission — win the World Cup.

While, of course, this is hard to execute for the men’s team (who are basically playing, always) — bound by the Future Tours Programme — it is a clear indication that planning works.

It’s not enough for the captain to say that “we want to build a team for World Cup 2015.” The board, the selectors and the captain have all got to sit down and devise a long term plan with a goal in mind.

When it works, you end up with the World Cup, the World T20 and the Ashes in your cabinet at the same time. And then you have to plan to keep it that way.