Silver lining in Commonwealth Games silver medal for Harmanpreet Kaur’s workforce

“Sath Mein Girenge, Sath Mein Uthenge, Hum Hai Team India, Hum Sath Mein Chalenge!” [We’ll fall together, we’ll rise together, we’re Team India, we’ll walk together]

After agonisingly lacking out on the Commonwealth Games girls’s cricket gold towards Australia, Jemimah Rodrigues put down a heartfelt observe on her social media accounts, praising the Indian workforce’s “grit, tenacity, and character” and the way they won’t cease till they flip this silver into gold. Likewise, the workforce’s vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, wrote, “Sorry that we could not get home the gold but surely golden days are ahead for this team!”

The most blatant signal of each these posts is how desperately this workforce needs to win and is now pushing for that elusive gold.

In the ultimate, concussion substitute Yastika Bhatia tripped over the promoting board whereas strolling out to bat, leaving her teammates, together with Smriti Mandhana, Rodrigues and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, bursting out in laughter. This incident is one other instance of how properly this workforce will get alongside. Despite the loss, there’s concord within the dressing room, and they’re positively a close-knit unit. This is one thing which has seldom been seen in girls’s cricket in India.

There are silver linings within the defeat, however going ahead, there gained’t be sympathies. Instead, there shall be criticism, scrutiny and evaluation of their performances as a result of it’s the third time within the final 5 years that they’ve misplaced within the finals of a significant match.

Birmingham: Indian girls’s cricket workforce gamers with their silver medals in the course of the medal ceremony on the Commonwealth Games 2022, Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham, UK, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)

India had acquainted ghosts haunting them and pegging them again to one more runners-up end. At Lord’s within the 2017 World Cup remaining towards England, on the MCG within the the 2020 T20 World Cup remaining towards Australia, and now at Edgbaston within the inaugural CWG remaining. Apart from the T20 World Cup remaining, India had been in pole place to win that elusive trophy on the opposite two events.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly congratulated the Indian workforce however on the identical time identified that it was their recreation and they need to have gained it. He tweeted: “Congratulations to the Indian women’s team for winning silver ..But they will go home disappointed as it was their game tonite .. @BCCIWomen.” Former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin, too, criticised India’s batting. He tweeted: “Rubbish batting by the Indian team. No common sense. Gave away a winning game on a platter.”

After the loss, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur rued the pattern of errors and spoke about how they have to shed the “mental block” within the title clashes. She mentioned: “Every time in the big final, we make the same mistakes again and again with the bat, that is something we have to improve.”

Harmanpreet Kaur in motion. (Twitter/ BCCI Women)

But once more, sooner or later, the onus can even be on the skipper to not throw away her wicket in crunch time. With Harmanpreet on the crease, India had been cruising. She had not performed a single rash shot. She was driving superbly, the sweeps had been imperious, however then she determined to play a cheeky scoop shot and bought out. Her wicket gave the world champions a gap, and so they simply feasted on it.

Another factor the Indian skipper and the workforce administration should watch out about is to get the choice proper on and off the sphere. Wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia’s choice over the gifted Richa Ghosh was fairly baffling, however Yastika Bhatia, a top-order batter strolling out at No 9 within the remaining after the likes of Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav, was equally questionable.

Despite the heartbreaking loss there’s a silver lining on this workforce. The openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma batted fearlessly on the prime. The discover of the match for India was swing bowler Renuka Singh Thakur, who bagged 11 wickets in 5 video games. In the match opener towards Australia, she single-handedly ran via the highest order. Radha Yadav was a miser with the ball and was electrical on the sphere. Be it the run out of Meg Lanning or the screamer of Tahlia McGrath she took diving full size to her left at backward level, Radha Yadav was in all places within the area. The all-round trio of Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma, and Sneh Rana did fairly properly , and the consistency proven by Harmanpreet Kaur was an enormous plus.

The workforce is younger and in transition submit the retirements of Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, however the core is prepared. All they want is backing, and to play with the “killing attitude” their skipper talked about earlier than the Commonwealth Games, and the silverware will come.