After India’s defeat to Australia in the ongoing Women’s World Cup, head coach Amol Muzumdar addressed the media, reflecting on the team’s performance, areas of improvement, and the lessons to take forward.
When asked about the middle-order collapse and the inability of key batters in Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Jemimah Rodrigues, managing starts but failing to convert them, Muzumdar refrained from singling out anyone.
“I would not like to name anybody. It was a superb batting effort to reach to 330. You can always say in hindsight that 20 more runs could have made a difference. There are a lot of takeaways from our batting display today, 330, was a very challenging contest.”
Speaking about the bowling and team balance, he said that the management would evaluate options moving forward. “Obviously, after this game, we’ll have a look at it. I’m sure the team management will have proper discussions, and we will take the right call as we approach the next game.”
On Australia’s record chase of 330, the highest successful chase in Women’s ODIs so far, the coach highlighted experience and continuity.
“Credit to them (Australia), I think they batted exceptionally and eventually got to 330 with one over to spare was a phenomenal effort. Yes, we tried to build pressure on them, but they have been experienced players, they’ve been playing together for a while, almost 10 years with almost the same team. Eventually, Ellyse Perry also finished things off, credit to them, they batted magnificently.”
On India’s approach to batting and the issue of dot balls, he acknowledged it as a focus area. “We had an elongated discussion about how we are going to approach the batting innings. That was one of the things that was discussed, the dot ball percentage. So far in the last year and half, we’ve been playing very aggressive cricket, and I thought today was a good display. Yes, the dot-ball percentage has come down, but we’ll have a closer look at it, we would like to get it down (48% dot balls).”
When questioned about consecutive losses to South Africa and Australia, Muzumdar emphasized the importance of finishing games well. “In cricket, finishing is very important. I always tell the players in the dressing room, yes, a good start matters, but we need a better finish. The finish we had in the South Africa game, as far as bowling is concerned in the last five overs, we ended up losing that game, and even against Australia, if we would have got another 20 runs, things went differently. It’s been a gradual progress and there are a lot of learnings. One of the things to learn is to finish well.”
When asked about possible batting order flexibility in future matches, Muzumdar explained that the team prefers a settled approach but remains open-minded.
“We have got a very settled batting lineup. I would not like to shuffle around too much, but when the need arises, we are flexible about it. We do have that luxury of sending Richa (Ghosh) in and at times we’ve got the services of Deepti (Sharma), who grinds and gets those singles easily, but I would not like to tinker too much with the batting lineup.”
Amol Muzumdar’s post-match reflections balanced accountability with encouragement. While acknowledging areas like finishing and consistency, he praised the team’s resilience and young talents like Kranti. With crucial matches ahead, Muzumdar’s focus remains on improvement and adaptability as India looks to bounce back in the tournament.
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