Just one narrow loss against South Africa, and the Indian women’s cricket team might not be able to reach the semis of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. That is because SA has won one and lost the other, against the two strongest sides, while IND still has one remaining against Australia. And that said, the SA match was once again a reflection of the problems, that the team has been going through. But if opener Shafali Verma is to be believed, the entire team is banking on a turnaround, just like the one happened in the 50-over WC last year, where this team lifted the trophy.
Got out of tough situation in 50-over World Cup
“Yesterday, in the huddle, Harman di told us that it’s not like we’ve never been in this situation before,” Shafali said. “We came into this same situation last year and got out of it. So I think a tough situation is one that has never come in your life before. We had accepted this situation in ODIs and we won. So we know that now we have to win these two matches. For that, what preparation will we need, how we will have to talk to each other as players.
“This time also we’ll just go and see what we did at that time, the things we executed well, so each player will see that and we are all ready for that [challenge].” And, so what different is the team doing, to comeback to winning ways in the tournament? “Whenever we have a bad day as a team, we know that every player’s morale will be down. But the next day, we all know we have to come together, unite and motivate each other. So yesterday in the huddle, we just said: from hereon, everyone knows that both are crucial games. But we’ll back each other, we’ll give our best in these two days of preparation.”
Shafali justifies chopping and changing
One of the biggest issues has been the misfiring middle order. Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur have been quite ordinary, and the reason for that could be, constant chopping and changing in the batter line up. But Shafali doesn’t see a problem with that. “You’re playing the World Cup – anyone can get a chance,” Shafali said. “If you don’t perform well, then of course you’ll sit out. And we all know that whoever performs, will play.”
Now, Team India is left with two games — on Wednesday they take on Bangladesh, while on June 28, they return to action, to take on Australia, in their final league match. England re the only team, who have qualified for semis, that too from the other group.
