India Women was dethroned for the first time from the T20 Asia Cup, facing the defeat in the final fixture against Bangladesh. The latter won the match by 3 wickets despite the half-century knock off Harmanpreet Kaur. Team India played a marginal inning wrapping up its score tally in 112 runs for 9 wickets. Although India bowlers restricted Bangladesh batsmen from building any palpable partnership, the low score in the previous innings emerged as the noose. 27 by Nigar Sultana was the highest strike in the chase, but it was enough to nick the win.

India’s culmination in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup final match as the losing side had several contrasting reasons, which could have been sidelined if worked out with proper strategy. The omission of Jemimah Rodrigues, batswomen losing their “nerves”, falling for runouts, feeble bowling and fielding in the chase and a lackadaisical combination of batswomen are the overtly apparent roadblocks for India.

Jemimah Rodrigues, the young batswomen have been the most consistent player since her debut. Her fielding downsides might be the reason of her omission, but her strike in international as well as domestic pitches put up enough reasons of inclusion. Even in IPL, she played with an excellent strike. In the match, India women lost it to Bangladesh bowlers in a complete wobble. Skipper Kaur explained “it was a pressure game”, because they did taste a defeat from Bangladesh earlier in the series. The collapse had the same impression of a slogged lower order, from that of India’s campaign in England and also the World Cup 2017 final.

In the chase, India conceded many runs, which fielders would have averted. The examples from Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma and Jhulan Goswami letting runs in misfields and mistaken throws are accountable. While, strategy to take wickets in the final overs seemed to be a flawed one, as India should have emphasized on a better economy rather than trickling out runs trying to nick wickets.

Thus, India’s play has several lackadaisical aspects. Rumana Ahmed summarized India’s condition after the league defeat as “a lesson on what happens when you lose two set batsmen to run-outs.” It was in fact, the underlying reason of run-outs, India Women must learn to handle high voltage, if they want to win final matches.