Sydney rain parades on Indian Women's T20 World Cup plans

India did thank the rains for bailing them out of the semi-final clash against England, the team that they have never beaten in the World Cup history. On 23rd July, it was England and India in the final of the Women’s ODI World Cup and India were ahead of the race for most parts in the game. When it mattered, England struck back, with the wicket of Punam Raut. Following Raut’s long walk to the dressing room, there was a different England in play and a different Anya Shrubsole. 

That culminated in their run to the knockout stage or the first semi-final. But when it came to the biggest stage, their voodoo opponents, their chance to prove the entire world wrong came crashing down. Some say India were lucky to get into the final, however, were they? India go into the final without having played a single game in eight days, which is a massive disadvantage, with Australia playing as recently as Thursday. 

Yet in every game, there was a pattern, which seemingly looked on the verge of haunting the team. Every single time they stepped on the field, they had a top-order that fired up instantaneously, a middle-order that was yet untested, with two of their experienced batters - Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana - not firing. Their bowling unit, too, was of a similar balance, with Poonam Yadav and Shikha Pandey being the most valuable ones. Against England, in overcast conditions, they had their nightmare right in front of them, for them to conquer, after four failed attempts to do so.

They had it right in front of them, to put past the 2017 debacle aside, step up their game and put on the show that Sydney Showground was there to witness. However, there they were, sitting with grim and yet happy faces, knowing that their passage to the final was now a ‘reality.’ Now, they will face Australia in the final, with the Australian side only beaten once in the T20 World Cup final, that too against West Indies away from home. 

With the ball too, they have had moments, including the encounter against New Zealand, where they have ended it too tight for their liking. In a game which was completely in their favour, they nearly turned it around to a tight-finish and looked like they had just heisted their way out to a victory.

Against Sri Lanka, they had their top-order tested, with Shafali Verma continuing to show what a young-blood could do to the team. In 2018, they had reached the semi-finals on the back of impressive performance in the group stage, led by solo-performances. However, when they reached the biggest-stage, they were undone for their own-good thanks to a bad, bad middle-order display.

All of this, despite putting up scores of 46, 49, 54 in the powerplay, the middle order has only taken them to 132, 116 and 142. Flashback to 2017, another thing that hurt them the most, wicket-takers in the middle over apart from Poonam Yadav. This edition, the problems remain the same, and when the opposition figures out how to tackle Poonam as New Zealand did in their encounter, the equation completely changes. When India face Australia in 2020, they would not be in the best of shape in the final, given that their last eight days were, in fact, off from the cricket field.