Despite 12-0 Feat Against Pakistan, Indian Analyst Criticizes Women’s Team for Major Flaw

Aakash Chopra spots big batting issue in the Indian women's team, despite two wins in two games.

Despite 12-0 Feat Against Pakistan, Indian Analyst Criticizes Women’s Team for Major Flaw

Indian women's team (via News 18) and Aakash Chopra (via InsideSport)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

India beat their eternal rivals Pakistan in a cricket match for four Sundays in a row. The first three were a part of the recently concluded men’s Asia Cup which was filled with all sorts of drama. The men’s Indian team beat Pakistan in all the stages of the tournament, including the final.

The women in blue continued the tradition into the fourth Sunday beating the Pakistan side quite handsomely in their group stage clash. India won the match by a steep margin of 88 runs and extended their perfect record over the opposition to 12-0.

Despite such a dominant win, there was a certain glaring stat that popped up. India had played as many as 170 dot balls in their effort to reach 247 against the women in green. A fan pointed out this statistic and tagged former India cricket and current commentator Aakash Chopra. The former cricketer gave his take on the statistic.

Not good enough in modern day ODI cricket. Need to rectify this.

Aakash Chopra via X

With the modern game going towards minimising dot balls, playing 170 dot balls could cost a side dearly. India didn’t get any such major problems because Pakistan, a relatively weaker side themselves, played a plethora of dot balls.

However, Chopra’s take could be right against aggressive sides like Australia and England. The two teams share 11 World cups between them and one of the keys to their success is their flawless strike rotation. India, who have never laid their hands on the silverware, have the golden chance of doing that in home conditions. As such, they will want to work on this aspect before it gets too late for them.

Indian batting struggles to click together despite two wins in two games

India is sitting pretty at the top of the table with two wins in two games against their Asian counterparts. They have successfully beaten both Sri Lanka and Pakistan in their first two matches by margins as big as 59 and 88 runs.

However, despite such dominant performance there are some errors the side would like to rectify before big games against Australia and England. The Indian batting order is just not clicking together so far in the World Cup.

Smriti Mandhana's Cricket World Cup doesn't start at the right note.
Smriti Mandhana (via Caught at Point)

It is difficult to believe that this very batting line up threatened to chase 400+ against Australia a couple of weeks ago but is finding it difficult to muster scores at the World Cup. In their first game against Sri Lanka, the team was in a massive spot of bother at 124-6.

They could have easily been bundled out for 170 if Sri Lanka took their catches. However, with some lucky reprieves and a good lower order partnership between Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur, the team managed to reach 269.

The bowling then saved the side as Sri Lanka were wrapped up for just 211. The problem though once again occurred against Pakistan where the team was 203/7 in more than 45 overs. If not for another lower order flourish, this time from Richa Ghosh, India could well have struggled to make it to 220.

Once again, the bowling bailed them out and they won easily in the end. Important names like Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur are not able to convert their starts into big substantial scores, which is not letting India cross the 250 mark easily.

Only Harleen Deol has shown some resistance in the top order and has scored rather consistently. If India has to post above 300 hundreds against Australia and England, they will need their top order to confidently cross 50s and 100s.

Also Read: