Time to think beyond Jhulan in fast bowling department: Mithali
What's the story
Captain Mithali Raj on Sunday said the time has come for the Indian Women's team to think beyond long-serving and over-worked Jhulan Goswami by grooming young pace bowlers for the future. She blamed both batting and bowling units for India's below-par show in the first ODI against England on Sunday, which India lost by eight wickets to go down 0-1 in the three-match series.
Scoring
India played 181 dot balls, scored 201 runs
Sent in to bat, India played 181 dot balls to post a modest 201 for eight, which England chased down in 34.5 overs with 91 balls to spare. "Yes, we need to look into that aspect and keep on rotating strike," Mithali said about the dot balls during the post-match virtual press conference. She said India's seam bowlers were not up to the mark.
Bowling
If seamers don't take wickets, spinners come under pressure: Mithali
Mithali said, "We need our top-5 batters to get runs. We need to understand that England seamers are very experienced. They know how to bowl in their conditions." "It puts pressure if we can get early wickets. If we don't get wickets from seamers it puts pressure on the spinners. So we need to groom fast bowlers other than Jhulan," she added.
Score
She scored 72 runs off 108 balls
Mithali made a patient 72 off 108 balls to help India go past the 200-run mark after the early dismissals of openers Shafali Verma (15) and Smriti Mandhana (10). But her knock was not enough as Indian batters failed to rotate the strike and find boundaries to accelerate the scoring rate. "Our batting line-up needs to fire at some point," she said.
Quote
We need to work on posting targets: Mithali
"Over the years we are far more comfortable chasing than posting targets. We need to work on that, we need to know how to get 250. We need to know when to push the acceleration and how to get that," Mithali said.
Details
We need to back players and groom them: Mithali
Hinting that there might be a few changes in the team's composition in the second ODI, Mithali said that the team management also needs to back players, especially those who have done well in the past. "Sometimes it is a gamble to play stroke players. But we need to back players to groom them keeping the World Cup in mind," she added.
Future
Focusing on grooming players for No. 3 slot: Mithali
Mithali feels it is her duty to groom her replacement and future stars of the team. "I have got most of my runs in the number three slot but it is important to get batters in that slot. We need to have batters who can score runs," Mithali said about her decision to drop down the order to number four position.