(Cricket news) It wouldn't be wrong to say that the Indian women's team were blessed with an opportunity to play a series in New Zealand right before the World Cup. To play a 5 match series against the hosts in their country is a massive advantage going into any tournament especially the 50 over world cup. The series ended 4-1 in favour of New Zealand as the last game was the only one which saw the Indian side perform well.
India's major issue was that Smriti Mandhana, Meghna Singh and Renuka Singh Thakur had to be in extended quarantine. India played 3 seamers in only 1 of their 5 games which is not ideal in New Zealand conditions. Performance wise India's batting was good enough but the bowling was below par and the fielding was even worse. If there is one thing this Indian side needs to work on it is the fielding especially throwing the ball from the deep quicker in order to minimise doubles and triples.
India definitely didn't approach the series as a normal series. They treated the 5 ODIs and the T20I as a practice game for the World Cup. In every game they had 3-5 personal changes along with constant changes in combination of the team. Players kept going in and out of the team. The result of the series in all honesty doesn't matter looking at the bigger picture, which is the World Cup starting in a week's time. The approach is definitely a risky one which could easily backfire.
There would've been no question about the approach if India were the outright favorites at the World Cup or were a team in good form. The women in blue had lost 3 consecutive ODI series in a row, the first one against South Africa at home and then England and Australia away. There is no guarantee that India would've won if they had gone into this series wanting to win and had played their best team in every game but it would have been a lot closer. A good series or even a series win would've been such a confidence booster for the side and the momentum would've then translated into the tournament.
One of the reasons why the captain and the management may have taken this decision is because it is in New Zealand. Playing in New Zealand is one of the biggest challenges in World cricket. The conditions are not the easiest to get used to as the wind influences batting bowling and fielding. Playing all 5 ODIs especially for the bowlers would've been tiring considering there is barely any gap between the 5th ODI and the World Cup Practice match.
The Indian side is young and inexperienced so giving each of them the opportunity to play in the series could also prove to be a masterstroke. If the inexperienced players play in these conditions then come the world cup they will be fully ready. Someone like Renuka Singh Thakur along with standbys S. Meghna, Ekta Bisht and Simran Dil Bahadur were probably given game time so that if they need to step in at any point they don't look out of place and are somewhat ready.
Even though India are not the favourites they have a good bunch of players with the mix of youth and experience. The vast experience of Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj is such an asset to the side. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav, Taniya Bhatia and Rajeshwari Gayakwad and even Shafali Verma to a certain extent have big tournament experience which is very key. The younger lot are supremely talented and have shown before that they can do a job. Richa Ghosh is definitely the youngster to watch out for in the tournament.
Also read: Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer fire India to 62 run win over lackluster Sri Lanka
