WT20 World Cup 2024: Mithali Raj Slams India's Batting Order Confusion and Critiques Fitness Standards After Early Exit

The former Indian captain, Mithali Raj was not pleased with the Indian women’s team’s performance in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024 in the UAE and suggested that they were unable to make it to the knockout stages due to a lack of growth in all three departments.

In fact, under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur, it is the first time that the Women in Blue failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the T20 Women’s showpiece event, thus posing questions about her long-term future as a captain.

The Indian batting legend in an interview with PTI, was critical of the side’s lack of clarity with the batting order and slammed the planning behind the scenes after the Indian unit was switching between the likes of the skipper, Jemimah Rodrigues in particular for the role during the tournament.

The Indian women’s team played in the Asia Cup 2024 before the T20 World Cup and that could have been the platform for most of the planning to be done for the major tournament, instead, the side lacked any long-term clarity and focused on winning the tournament, something the team eventually fell short.

“When you know that this is the last game time that you’re going to have before you enter the big tournament you do at least 70 percent of your planning or 80% of your planning. Like who your number 5 and number 6 are, these are people who would walk in a particular situation. But there it seemed they were playing only for that tournament. It didn’t seem like it was anywhere closer to… what we got to see in the World Cup,” she said as quoted by PTI.

“We could have given more opportunities to the bench against lower-ranked teams in Asia Cup but we didn’t. Why does the men’s team do well? Because, immediately after a big series or a big tournament, they’re trying others. If we are talking about depth then when are we giving them chances?” she questioned.

Another aspect she criticised the Indian team was about the fitness work being done. She believes that something as important as fitness cannot be done in a camp which lasts for a month, but has to be the regular upholding to fitness standards to ensure that the players are in tip-top shape.

“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,” she said.

(with PTI Inputs)