ICC Women's World Cup: Time for Harmanpreet, Jemimah to step up

AT THIS ICC Women's World Cup so far, India's No 4 and No 5 batters - Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues — have contributed a total of 136 runs in a combined 8 innings together, with an average of 17.00 and strike rate of 86.62, without a single fifty-plus score.

- VINAYAKK MOHANARANGAN

These are simply not good enough numbers for a side harbouring hopes of pushing for the elusive global title, entering the tournament as one of the challengers for Australia's crown.

Even a struggling New Zealand have better numbers for these two crucial positions in any batting order, especially in a tournament where middle and lower-middle order contributions have been match-defining. Sophie Devine, leading from the front in her final ODI World Cup, and Brooke Halliday have amassed a combined 402 runs in just three matches.

On Monday in Visakhapatnam, Bangladesh too went past India's numbers for these batting positions. India have been let down so far by two of their main batters, and while they were saved by contributions by lower down the order in the first two matches, the batting lineup being short of runs has played a critical part in the back-to-back defeats against South Africa and Australia.

This has also meant that India have been risk-averse to drop a batter and playing an additional bowling option which would give them enough cushion with the ball, which has been lacking in both their defeats.