India’s women captain Mithali Raj, has said that her team’s long-standing inability is the matter of concern in the major games as it increases dot-ball percentage. Mithali all these in the post-match presentation after losing the first ODI against England by 8 wickets.
Skipper Raj was the top scorer from her side with 72 runs playing at number 4, apart from her no other batter showed temperament in the game.
“Clearly, yes, we need to look into that aspect and work on rotating the strike,” Raj, the India Test and ODI captain, said afterwards. “Having said that, we require at least another top-order batter, in the top five, to get us the runs.
“We also need to understand that the England bowlers are very experienced, the seamers especially, [more so] than the seamers we have. They are bowling in their conditions; they know how to bowl in their conditions, and they really bowled well today.
Raj said her decision to bat outside of the top order was anchored in longer-term scenarios and it also gave the middle-order a stabilty.
“I think I’ve got most of my runs in the No. 3 slot, but it is also important to have batters in the side,” she said. “We can’t really fill [the line-up] with allrounders who sort of pitch in bowling or in batting. We need to have batters in the side who’ll score runs. If I go at No. 4, I’m also giving an opportunity for the team because I know for a fact that I’m not going to play forever. I also need to groom players in a sense when I am around, and guide them in the middle.”
“Over the years, I’ve seen that we, the Indian team, are far more comfortable chasing a target because we know how to up our run rate,” Raj said. “But when it comes to posting a target, I guess there’s something we need to work on when and how we get to 250 because we can’t be going bang, bang and then lose wickets in the top order and you have the lower order to score those runs, like how we did today. That will take us to 200 or 210, but that’s not something we’d want.
“So, yes, as a batting unit, along with the batting coach, we need to sit down to find a way where, if we bat first, how we could try to put a total of 250 on the board and where we need to put on the acceleration and how we get our innings to do that.
India women is set to play two more ODIs and three T20Is against the home side England.
