Mithali Raj urges spinners, tail to up their game

Mithali Raj, the India one-day international captain, has urged the side to work on their spin bowling and lower-order batting ahead of the ICC Women’s World T20 2018 in the Caribbean later this year.

India have begun their preparations for the tournament with a five-match T20 series on their tour of South Africa. They lead 2-1 after four games, with one washed out. When the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 finalists return home, they have a T20I tri-series to look forward to, with strong competition in Australia and World Cup winners England.

In their first two matches against South Africa, India showed good form in chasing down targets of 165 and 144. Their 168/3 in the opening game was the second-highest total batting second in women’s T20Is, while in the next game they lost just one wicket in the chase.

Yet, Raj believed there was scope for improvement. “[T20] is a different format and the wickets are more conducive for high scoring, they are batter-friendly wickets, so the spinners have a lot to work on,” she said.

“The lower order needs to contribute with the bat,” she added. “Yes, we definitely want the batters to score the bulk of the runs, but sometimes, some games, the tail needs to contribute more.”

Elaborating on the positives, she said, “We have very good T20 batters in Harman [Harmanpreet Kaur] and Veda [Krishnamurthy], who can really clear [the boundary], and Smriti [Mandhana] has been scoring runs consistently in both formats.

“The fast-bowling area – Pooja Vastrakar, who’s a new entry, has been doing well in the absence of Jhulan [Goswami]. And also Shikha [Pandey], who’s an experienced campaigner.”

India have handed four new caps during the series, and Raj felt the youngsters brought a “lively atmosphere” to the team. Besides, not only was there a good mix of youth and experience, but the team had also developed match-winners, she said.

“I always felt the team should not be dependent on one player. We should have four-five players who can win matches. For a long time India never had that. Now I can see we have developed few players who are match-winners.”

Raj, whose 54* and 76* in the first two games took her run to four consecutive fifties in the format – before she fell for a duck in the third game – admitted that she’d worked on her batting to keep up with the changing game, where more sixes are being hit than ever before. Aiming for consistency, she was looking forward to correcting India’s lack of success in the T20 tournaments.

And, important in that, she said, was fitness. “I also have worked on my fitness. More than anything, it gives you confidence when you walk out onto the ground, knowing you’re fit and you back it with your skills,” said the 35-year-old.

“The last two-three years, the team has a trainer with us. The girls have taken the initiative to hire personal trainers to work on their fitness. Now … the matches are being televised, live streamed, so you know everybody is watching you play and seeing the standards you put in, even in fielding. It’s important that every player turns their thoughts [towards] a more professional approach.”

The final South Africa-India match will be on 24 February in Cape Town.