India women back on track

DUBAI: Recently, researchers in Germany discovered an old piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most recognised and prominent music composers of the Classical era almost 233 years after his death. The newly discovered “Serenade in C” is a work made up of seven miniature pieces for a string trio – which means it needs three artists to come together and be in sync to play it.

For India, at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday evening against Sri Lanka, Mozart was never going to inspire as such, but just like the newly discovered piece, India needed a specific trio to stand up. To make the maximum impact possible in the group of death where only minimum slip-ups were allowed.

Heading into the fixture, there were two most important problems India were facing. Their opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma was not clicking and they needed a net run-rate boost to remain in the contest. The criticism about not going after Pakistan’s small total was immense and to add to that, captain Harmanpreet Kaur had dropped to number four in that fixture after playing at three in the run-up to the marquee event. Problems were aplenty.

The opening pair has a reputation for being one of the most explosive duos in the women’s game. After the Australian pair of Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy, they have the most runs in partnership for the opening wicket. If Mandhana’s backfoot play is one of the best in the world, one cannot set a field when Verma is firing on all cylinders. They have done it before for India and it was high time they showed up as a duo.

Then there is Kaur. A look at her previous hits at the ICC events would tell you that if Kaur has not already performed at the tournament, she is always circling around in search of that one knock. One can assure you that most likely, it would come at the most crucial time in the tournament. 

Whether it was her 171 not out against Australia in England or it was her T20I century against New Zealand in the 2018 T20 World Cup. If Kaur had not already given a blockbuster, be rest assured that a knock is coming. In Dubai, that is what happened on Wednesday. The trio had to click. There was no other option. And they did.

It started with Mandhana and Verma finding their vintage self in the powerplay. It was not as gung ho from the get go as the world is used to, but it was definitely as tame as what the crowd witnessed against Pakistan. It took Verma the third over to finally find the rope against Udeshika Prabodhani’s pace.