Former India captain Mithali Raj on Tuesday attributed the national team’s underwhelming performance in the Women’s T20 World Cup to lack of growth across departments over the past three years. It was the first time under Harmanpreet Kaur’s long captaincy tenure that India failed to qualify for the knockouts of the ICC showpiece, extending the team’s title-less run in world events and putting serious question marks over her future as skipper. Speaking to PTI from Dubai, Mithali said the team’s downfall was a result of not getting used to the conditions in the UAE quick enough, lack of role clarity in the batting department, untested bench strength, and below-par fielding.

Excerpts from the interview: 

How would you assess India’s performance in the tournament? 

If I talk about the Australia game, it was a match to win. I thought at some point we had a chance but it seemed like we are following the same template against Australia. Taking the match deep but falling short eventually. It’s not working.

I feel that in the last two, three years, I’ve not really seen any growth in this team, in the sense like, I mean, beating the best side is what you always prepare for but it seems like we are 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.

Do you think the loss to New Zealand hurt the team more compared to the defeat against Australia?

Surprisingly, we took time to adjust to the slowness of the wicket. 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 Sophie Devine was able to score that many runs against us and she is not used to playing on slow tracks. We were not quick enough to adjust.

Considering the frequent changes in the batting order (Harmanpreet and Jemimah juggled between number 3 and 4), would it be fair to say there was lack of role clarity in that department?

We expect the openers to do well, we always expect Shafali to go big. But things have changed over the years. If both the openers go well, then we always get stuck in middle overs. That has been our story.

And then we try and make up in the end. The the power play and the death overs is where we do well, but in the middle overs, we’ve not found ways to get better.

I was doing commentary in the Asia Cup. To be very honest, I didn’t know that, what was happening. I’m sure they were aware that Asia Cup is the last series of matches that they’re going to play before the World Cup.

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 is, 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.

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?

A lot of work was done in the fielding department ahead of the World Cup but it did not produce the desired results. Would you agree? 

Against Australia, I was very disappointed to see, other than Radha Yadav and Jemi to some extent, I don’t think there was anybody. So we cannot have just two players out of eleven 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.

Harmanpreet Kaur has captained India in T20 World Cups since 2018 but the results have not come. Should the selectors move on from her and appoint someone younger? 

If the selectors decide to change, I would go for a young captain. This is the time (to change) if you delay more then we have another World Cup on the horizon. If you are not doing now, then don’t do it later. Then it is too close to the World Cup.

Smriti is there (has been vice-captain for long) but I think someone like Jemima, she’s 24, she’s young, she will serve you more. And 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 someone who really made an effort to build a momentum if there was no momentum, and if there was a momentum, she tried to carry that momentum. 

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