5 reasons why India failed to win the Women’s T20 World Cup 2020

For the last few years, women’s cricket has been on the rise in India. The popularity has grown immensely especially ever since India reached the final of the 2017 World Cup. However, there has been a problem with them winning the knockouts. They lost to England in that 2017 World Cup final before losing to the same team in the semi-finals of the 2018 T20 World Cup. Now, they’ve lost the final of the 2020 T20 World Cup to Australia.

India had a very good tournament overall where topped their group after going unbeaten in the league stages. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side beat Australia in the first game to set the tone before dispatching Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the subsequent games. They were to face England in the semi-final but a washout meant that India went through by the virtue of finishing higher in the group stages.

However, there were a few obvious shortcomings that eventually led to India’s downfall. Here are five reasons why India could not go on to lift their maiden T20 World Cup title.

Senior players failing to step up

When two of your best batters average 12.25 and 6.00 in a T20 World Cup, there’s hardly any chance of winning. Going into this T20 World Cup, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur were going to be the two key players for the Indian team. Their form has been crucial to India’s chances every time. However, runs dried up from their bats and India suffered in the big game.

It didn’t really make too much of a difference in the group stages as the others kept chipping in and the bowling attack pulled them through. But when the bowling attack failed and Shafali Verma didn’t get a start, India desperately needed Mandhana and Kaur to stand up and deliver. Unfortunately for India, that didn’t happen.

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Mandhana and Kaur couldn’t even get a single score of over 20. The left-handed opener had the highest score of 17 while the Indian captain’s top-scored with just 15 in this tournament. Hence, the form of the two big players affected India’s chances big time.

Over-dependent on spin

It is no secret that India are a spin-dominant team. Harmanpreet Kaur hasn't been afraid of throwing the ball to her spinners irrespective of that match situation and more often than not, the game-plan has helped choke the opposition team and put them under pressure.

India did that for a large part of this tournament where spinners that did the bulk of the damage with pacer Shikha Pandey chipping in and complementing them nicely. In fact, India went in with four spinners as well and had at least 16 overs of spin almost every game, barring the first two.

However, on a hard surface at the MCG, playing four spinners backfired and even Shikha Pandey was taken to the cleaners. India could've done with an additional seamer in Arundhati Reddy who played a couple of games at the start of the tournament. It may not have made a big difference but it would've given India a different option as the spinners went for plenty in the final.

Yes, India’s strength is their spinners but their over-reliance and over-dependence may well have been one of the reasons why India lost this T20 World Cup.

Inability to deal with the big-match pressure

Ever since the 2013 Champions Trophy win, be it men’s or women’s, the Indian teams just haven't been able to cope with the pressure of the knockouts. They have stumbled and choked at crunch moments and knockout games.

The Indian women’s team have now lost their third ICC tournament in a knockout in as many tournaments. They lost the 2017 World Cup final from a winning position while they failed to get past the semifinals in the 2018 T20 World Cup. Now, in the 2020 T20 World Cup final, the Indian side fell short.

They've just let the nerves get to them on the big day. The way Deepti Sharma bowled the first over and the two drop catches was the precursor of India's dismal outing at the MCG. Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney's fireworks at the top deflated the Indian team and they didn't have any answers this time around.

Thus, the pressure eventually got to the Indian team and cost them in the end. After a wonderful time in the group stages, India crumbled under pressure when it mattered the most.

No power-hitters in the middle-order

India does boast of a solid batting line-up but when you look down that batting order, there’s hardly anyone you can think of as a power-hitter apart from Harmanpreet Kaur. There isn't a single batter who could just walk in and smoke the first ball for four or six when needed. Shafali Verma did it at the top but no one in the middle-order could do that and at the end of the innings or when India needed some impetus in the final.

Only four batters (those who have scored more than 20 runs in this tournament) had a strike-rate in excess of 100. Shafali Verma was the only player who scored consistently at a good strike rate. Smriti Mandhana had a poor tournament but was striking at 125.64. Veda Krishnamurthy was the other player who was striking at over 100. Richa Ghosh, who played two games, including the final as a concussion substitute had a strike-rate of exactly 100.

Hence, there is a serious need for the Indian team to develop and invest in a power-hitter in the middle order. There was hardly any power in the middle and it was one of the reasons why they failed to chase down a big total.

No half-centuries in the entire tournament

It was only Shafali Verma who was smacking it all around the park among the Indian batters. Deepti Sharma too played a couple of useful innings when India were in trouble in the middle but apart from them, none of the other batters stood out. No India batter got a single half-century throughout this tournament.

Verma was the only batter who looked comfortable and showed consistency. She had a strike-rate of 158.25 and scored 163 runs which is the most by an Indian player in this edition of the T20 World Cup. Deepti Sharma was the only other batter to get more than 100 runs.

There was a template to every game. The 16-year-old opener gave the team a flying start but couldn’t convert it into big knocks. None of the others got going at any point during the tournament. In fact, India’s scores in this tournament were 132/4, 142/6, 133/8, 116/3 and 99 all out, the last two of which came while chasing.

Hence, it was the failure of the batting line-up and the absence of big scores that hurt India.