Mithali Raj makes startling admission about India’s future after an underwhelming Women’s T20 World Cup campaign.
Mithali Raj believes this is the correct time to move away from Harmanpreet Kaur as captain.
Since taking over for Raj in 2016, Harmanpreet has managed the team and has participated in four T20 World Cups. Although they advanced to at least the semi-finals in the three prior editions, the most recent one has had the worst results.
“If the selectors decide to change, I would go for a young captain,” Raj told PTI. “This is the time [to change]; if you delay more then we have another [ODI] World Cup on the horizon [October 2025]. If you are not doing it now, then don’t do it later. Then it is too close to the World Cup.
“Smriti [Mandhana, the vice-captain since 2016] is there but I think someone like Jemimah [Rodrigues], she’s 24, she’s young, she will serve you more. And [she] is someone who I feel on the field gets that energy. She speaks to everybody. I was very impressed by her in this tournament.
“Despite playing those cameo roles, she never could convert her starts, but [she is] someone who really made an effort to build a momentum if there was no momentum. And if there was momentum, she tried to carry that momentum [forward].”
Raj emphasised that the primary cause of India’s subpar performance was their incapacity to adjust rapidly. This was unlike South Africa, who planned a late tour to Pakistan. Or Australia or New Zealand, who played each other. India entered this tournament fresh from two months of camps and match simulation in Bengaluru.
“Surprisingly, we took time to adjust to the slowness of the wicket,” Raj said. “Unlike an ODI World Cup, it is a short tournament. You don’t have a lot of time to adjust to the conditions. Someone like [New Zealand captain] Sophie Devine was able to score that many runs [57 not out] against us and she is not used to playing on slow tracks. We were not quick enough to adjust.”
Mithali Raj bemoaned the India team’s lack of “growth” over the previous three years, taking a broader view. She believed that India was “saturated” when it came to playing strong teams like Australia and had been “content” to defeat the lower-ranked teams.
“I feel that in the last two-three years, I’ve not really seen any growth in this team,” Raj said. “In the sense, like, I mean, beating the best side is what you always prepare for. But it seems it is saturated in the sense we are beating other teams. And we are pretty happy in that. Every other team has shown growth despite limited depth, a case in point being South Africa. We have not.”
Raj also took issue with some of the players’ lack of fitness, believing it to be a factor in their inability to make catches. India missed three catches and had the opportunity to convert two more half-chances against Australia.
“Against Australia, I was very disappointed to see, other than Radha Yadav and Jemi to some extent, I don’t think there was anybody,” she said. “So we cannot have just two players out of 11 being good.
“In terms of fitness, we need to have a benchmark. Honestly, how much can you work in a month? It’s something that you do around the year. It’s not like just before the tournament, you have a camp and it’s just going to really show the difference on the field.”