Soon after India suffered an eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of England in the third and final day/night women's T20 International at Chelmsford on Wednesday to go down 2-1 in the T20I series, coach Ramesh Powar made a pertinent statement in the post-match presser: the India women's team needs an "ideological change" to transform into a "fearless unit" as per the demands of modern-day cricket.
After beginning with a creditable draw in their on-off Test at Bristol, India thus ended their English tour on a low, losing both the T20I and ODI series with an identical scoreline. Considering that they lost the series in both formats a few months back to South Africa at home too - it's apparent that India still have plenty of work to do to improve their limited overs game if they are to stake a claim in the 50-over World Cup next year in New Zealand.
Powar recognised the fact that an "ideological shift" in the team's approach needs time and can't happen overnight. "We have to be fearless. I can't force them in the first series (since his return as coach). They have been playing with same ideology, and we can't make drastic changes. We have to assess what suits them," the former India off-spinner said.
"To get them out of it (slow strike rate in the middle overs) (we have to) convince them and to do that, it takes a lot of communication. Fearless is how modern cricket will be played."
The coach then hinted that if the current lot of batters don't adapt to the changes required of them, India may be forced to bring in new players in the middle-order, who can score faster. "There are two ways. Either mould them (current lot) or draft in other middle-order players to up the ante. As simple as that. This time we tried a few combinations and it didn't work out and going forward, we might try something new, bring new players, might mould them," he said.
