The ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 is around the corner, and Team India, as always has fielded a strong squad. But would it be good enough to lift the trophy, is something we will know a month later only. Batting is a visible strength along with spin bowling, while the all-round players and pacers could be bit of a concern.
Indian batting a strength, & weakness too
But former India women’s coach, WV Raman, who spent a sizeable amount of time with the team a few years back, thinks a bit differently. In an interaction with InsideSport, he highlighted, that though batting — majorly due to Smriti Mandhana and others comes out as a positive, it could also lead to a downfall.
The southpaw, along with Pratika Rawal has been in such tremendous form, that some of the others might not be able to match, or fall short in crunch situations. “In this World Cup, their strength would be their weakness. Batting is very strong, which could be a problem. It depends on the combination they play. And also the approach they undertake. What I mean is, the players can’t allow the tempo to slow down,” Raman said.
Middle-order needs to come good in Women’s World Cup 2025
He went on to add that even though the middle-order has the likes of Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, and even Deepti Sharma, but exposure in crunch situations is needed, which perhaps hasn’t happened. “The openers are providing a fantastic platform. Smriti and Partika have been excellent, due to which the shortcomings in the unit have been overshadowed. We are not seeing the middle-order overcome a tricky situation yet. That is what I meant, when I said, strength could be weakness.”
Harmanpreet Kaur “is going to make a difference”
Meanwhile, there has also been substantial criticism over Harmanpreet Kaur. Raman brushed away any form concerns, related to the captain. “Strangely enough, in the last 20 innings she has played, she is averaging around 40, and got a couple of 100s. In fact, she played a brilliant innings in the last ODI vs Australia, where she scored a fifty, but the innings was overshadowed by Smriti’s innings. Probably this is one WC after the 2017 edition, where she is really going to make a difference.”
Rightly so. Harman has shown reasonably good form in the 50-over format. In 2024, in 12 matches, she scored 396 runs at an average of 40 including a ton and a fifty, and in 2025, in 11 matches she has 346 runs. That also includes a ton and a fifty.
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