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Team India made a winning start in the ACC Women's T20 Asia Cup but its shortcomings were exposed against a weak team like Thailand. Thanks to Shefali Verma's quick half-century, the Indian team reached 91 runs in 9 overs. Only 2 wickets had fallen but the team could score only 69 runs in the last 11 overs. The middle order fell apart like a pack of cards, due to which Team India could not reach a big score.

The opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shefali had scored 38 runs in 3 overs. Team's vice-captain Smriti was out after scoring 19 runs in 10 balls with the help of 4 fours. After this, Shefali and debutant Pratika Rawal made a quick partnership of 58 runs in 6 overs for the second wicket. Pratika's contribution in this was only 22 runs, for which she took 18 balls. Shefali was continuously playing big shots from one end. In such a situation, Pratika's dismissal on a total score of 91 would not have hurt the Indian team that much. But the way the middle order disintegrated after this, must have increased the tension of head coach Amol Majumdar.

Middle order disappointed again

The Indian team could not make it to the semi-finals in the recent T20 World Cup held in England due to the failure of the middle order. Number-3 was used continuously. Jemimah Rodrigues came first down in the initial matches but she was pushed down and Yastika Bhatia was given a chance in this position. In the last league match, Jemimah was again played at number-3. The team did not benefit from this upheaval in the batting order.

Jemimah is not playing in the Asia Cup due to a hamstring injury. Pratika has got a chance in her place. Pratika came at number-3 and played a solid innings. After this, captain Harmanpreet Kaur (5 runs in 9 balls) and Bharti Fulmali (13 runs in 14 balls) could not do anything special. Wicketkeeper batsman and the team's reliable finisher Richa Ghosh was out without opening the account.

Within no time the Indian team's score increased from 108/2 to 137/9. It was good for Kranti Gaur (15 not out in 8 balls) and Sri Charani (6 not out in 8 balls) who made a partnership of 22 runs in 14 balls for the last wicket, due to which India crossed the 150 mark, otherwise Thailand could also have got a chance.

Richa is left alone in finishing

The Indian team is largely dependent on Richa for finishing. Richa, famous for hitting big shots, has hit 32 sixes in the last 5 years while batting between number 5 and number 7. After her, Deepti Sharma is at second place, who has hit only 5 sixes. These figures show to what extent the Indian team is dependent on Richa for strong finishes. This is the reason why in the match in which Richa gets out early, Team India is not able to do anything special in the death overs.

Is it time to move on from Harmanpreet?

Harmanpreet, 37, has been leading the Indian T20 team for almost 10 years, but under her leadership the team has not been able to win any major trophy for a long time. Team India has failed to reach the semi-finals of 2 consecutive T20 World Cups. Apart from this, the team also had to face defeat in the final of the 2024 Asia Cup.

Under the captaincy of Harmanpreet, the Indian team has been able to win only 3 out of 15 T20 tournaments with 3 or more teams. Of these, 2 are Asia Cup and 1 Asian Games title. The team captained by Harman has never won those T20 multi-nation tournaments, which have included strong teams like Australia, England and South Africa.

In the last two T20 World Cups, the Indian team has been able to defeat only Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Netherlands. In view of Harmanpreet's poor T20I record as captain, there is now talk of handing over the reins of the team to Smriti Mandhana. Smriti has won two WPL titles for Royal Challengers Bangalore under her captaincy. Considering the next T20 World Cup and Olympics, it is believed that this is the right time to move on from Harmanpreet.