The Indian women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur flagged up the need for a bowling coach after Australia beat India in third T20I of the five-match series to take a 2-1 lead. Even so, the Indian skipper is content with the way her bowlers are rising to the occasion and tackling the situation head-on.
India lack a full-time bowling coach as Ramesh Powar had his duties shifted to National Cricket Academy (NCA) and Hrishikesh Kanitkar was appointed as the new batting coach of the side, two months prior to the T20 World Cup 2023 in South Africa. India got the better of Australia in the second T20I by virtue of a Super Over but lost the following game by 21 runs on Wednesday (December 14).
"I know we are definitely missing a bowling coach but our bowlers are taking charge," Harmanpreet said in the post-match press conference.
"They are participants in the meetings. They have full responsibility and today (it was) all their plans and they were leading the way, I was just supporting them in the middle." India conceded more than 170 runs in each of the last three T20s.
Medium pacer and all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar's injury ahead of the Australia series has only worsened matters for India.
"(We are missing) Pooja for sure. On these tracks you need a medium pacer," the 33-year-old said.
"Definitely when you bowl back-to-back spin bowling, it allows opposition batters to settle easily. We are definitely missing Pooja because she has the experience of death-overs bowling. We tried Meghna in the first two games but it didn't click." In Pooja's absence, Renuka Singh, who has played 23 T20Is since making her debut just over a year ago, is leading the pace attack.
"Renuka has the experience because she has done well in the past six-seven months and has got good results. Whenever we set plans for pace bowlers she takes the lead and our video analysts give us a lot of information," the skipper said.
"Talking about spin bowlers, almost all spinners have played a lot of T20 cricket like Deepti, Radha, Rajeshwari. Devika (Vaidya) is new to the team but she also has the experience of international cricket and has done a lot of homework with respect to international cricket."
The debutant from the first game, left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani in the series featured in the second T20I too. The 25-year-old bagged two wickets in the third T20I after going wicketless in the series opener.
With Sarvani and Renuka hitting good lengths in tandem, Australia were cramped for room and could only manage 26 for two wickets in the first four overs.
"The way we bowled in the powerplay, especially Renuka and Anjali (was commendable). They were swinging the ball and bowled according to the plan. They were not giving easy runs to the batters," the India skipper said.
The fourth T20I is scheduled to be played at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday (December 17) which is a series decider for the Indian team as they are trailing by a game loss.
