Bristol: India women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj has stated the youngsters should not depend on veteran Jhulan Goswami solely in taking early wickets and seamers in the squad need to be groomed for the future.
After scripting a memorable draw against England in the one-off Test last week, India stumbled in the first ODI miserably. Defending 201, the Indian bowlers could pick just two wickets on Sunday.
Mithali blamed both the batting as well as the bowling units for India’s below-par show. “Yes, we need to investigate that aspect and keep the strike spinning. You need the top five batters to run, and you need to understand that English seamers are very experienced. They know how to bowl in their own conditions,” Mithali said after the match.
She said the seam bowlers in her side did not meet the standards and they should understand and learn to ball accordingly. “If we can get an early wicket, it puts pressure. If we don’t get a wicket from a seamer, it puts pressure on the spinner. So we need to take care of fast bowlers other than Jhulan. They should understand the condition and learn how to bowl well accordingly,” Mithali added.
Talking about the game India managed only 201/8, which saw an appalling 181 dot balls (30.1 overs). England chased down the target with 15.1 overs to spare. Mithali, who scored 72 runs in 108 balls which helped India to go past the 200-run mark.
“Over the years, we are far more comfortable chasing targets because we know how to up our run rate. But when it comes to setting a target we lose out. We can’t go bang bang and lose wickets and then struggle. As a batting unit, we need to sit down with the batting coach to figure out how we can get to that 250 mark if we are batting first, where to press the accelerator and how to get our innings together,” she added.
Mithali is also the first-ever female cricketer and second overall after the legendary Sachin Tendulkar to have completed 22 years in ODIs. One of India’s greatest batters the country has ever produced, Mithali made her international debut in 1999 and holds the record for most runs in women’s ODIs and has never looked back since.
