The recently concluded 3 match England women vs India women ODI series saw England lift the trophy as they won the series 2-1
As a consolation, India won the third and final ODI in Worcester by 4 wickets. India won the toss, first time in the series and decided to bowl first – restricting the England side to a total of 219.
And for the visitors, it was the skipper Mithali Raj’s unbeaten 75 (off 86) and the bowling unit efforts that saw them avoid the clean-sweep and awarded the team their 1st win in the tour.
As we can see from the Royal London Series that India’s middle-order has not played up to par. There are many reasons which have caused this.
England Women vs India Women: Dwelling Into India’s Batting Fiasco
1. Losing the toss gave away their power
The Indian Women’s teams lost the toss in the early two ODI matches and were put to bat first by England. Batting first India put a low total score of 201/8 in the first ODI at Bristol and 221 in the second ODI at Taunton.
In this scenario England got a low total score to cover, which put pressure on the Indian bowlers to defend such an easy target. In the third ODI India won the toss and chose to bowl and that later led to their win.
2. India’s ODI squad
India's Test & ODI squad:
Mithali Raj (C), Harmanpreet Kaur (VC), Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti, Jemimah, Shafali, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Indrani Roy (WK), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, A. Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) May 14, 2021
When the above list of players for the series was released, many were wondering who will play in the 3rd position and what the middle order will look like for Team India. As the squad includes seven openers, who will play in the middle are nothing in comparison to the experienced middle order players like Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur.
3. Slow batting strike rate
In the 1st ODI, Punam Raut and Smriti Mandhana were playing on very slow batting strike rate and later the responsibility was passed on to Mithali Raj. In the 2nd ODI, they changed the order and brought in Jemimah Rodrigues and Sneh Rana but that didn’t change anything as they also failed.
So we can notice that the middle order couldn’t maintain a promising batting strike rate throughout the ODI series, which led all the pressure went onto Captain Mithali Raj.
4. Unable to rotate the strike
On one hand, England’s experienced middle order were sneaking two runs in between the wicket, on the other hand the Indian players were blocking the shots, giving away dot balls.
5. Anchors in the middle order are playing safe
In cricket, an anchor is a batter who has the skill and talent to bat for a long time and sustain a good defense. Mithali Raj was the best performing anchor, she was consistent in all the 3 ODI’s as she guided the team to a reasonable score, and scored half century in each match.
But anchors like Punam Raut, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues weren’t at their best form.
6. Too many anchors
As anchors score at a moderate strike rate whilst preserving their wicket by avoiding risky shots. But the high numbers of anchors in the Indian team turned out to be a minus point for them in this ODI series.
7. Team composition didn’t work
Though many had suggested for a change in team line up, to revive the middle-order, but veteran Jhulan Goswami had other views.
“They [Middle Order] just need one good knock among them. Then definitely we’ll be on a great platform. These things happen in cricket,” Goswami said ahead of the 2nd ODI match.
After the 3rd ODI, Mithali Raj in a press conference commented on the team composition:
“As far as the composition as I said, right now we are going with 5 bowlers, but something that we are looking at is to have another all-rounder in the side. But again it cuts down to a one of the purist (a batter or a bowler). We are throwing some ideas. By the next series, we should see what sort of a pool of players we look at and get into the team.”
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