'I would go for a young captain': Mithali Raj on Women's T20 World Cup 2024 debacle

Former India captain Mithali Raj on Tuesday attributed the national teams underwhelming performance in the Womens T20 World Cup 2024 to lack of growth across departments over the past three yearsIt was the first time under Harmanpreet Kaurs long captaincy tenure that India failed to qualify for the knockouts of the ICC showpiece extending the teams titleless run in world events and putting serious question marks over her future as skipperSpeaking to PTI from Dubai Mithali said the teams downfall was a result of not getting used to the conditions in the UAE quick enough lack of role clarity in the batting department untested bench strength and belowpar fieldingExcerpts from the interviewHow would you assess Indias performance in the tournament If I talk about the Australia game it was a match to win I thought at some point we had a chance but it seemed like we are following the same template against Australia Taking the match deep but falling short eventually Its not workingI feel that in the last two three years Ive not really seen any growth in this team in the sense like I mean beating the best side is what you always prepare for but it seems like we are saturated in the sense we are beating other teams and we are pretty happy in thatEvery other team has shown growth despite limited depth a case in point being South Africa We have notAlso ReadEXPLAINED The MCC rule behind Phoebe Litchfieldrsquos LBW controversy Do you think the loss to New Zealand hurt the team more compared to the defeat against Australia Surprisingly we took time to adjust to the slowness of the wicket Unlike an ODI World Cup it is a short tournament you dont have a lot of time to adjust to the conditions Someone like Sophie Devine was able to score that many runs against us and she is not used to playing on slow tracks We were not quick enough to adjust Considering the frequent changes in the batting order Harmanpreet and Jemimah juggled between number 3 and 4 would it be fair to say there was lack of role clarity in that departmentWe expect the openers to do well we always expect Shafali to go big But things have changed over the years If both the openers go well then we always get stuck in middle overs That has been our storyAnd then we try and make up in the end The the power play and the death overs is where we do well but in the middle overs weve not found ways to get betterI was doing commentary in the Asia Cup To be very honest I didnt know that what was happening Im sure they were aware that Asia Cup is the last series of matches that theyre going to play before the World CupWhen you know that this is the last game time that youre going to have before you enter the big tournament you do at least 70 percent of your planning or 8037 of your planningLike who your number 5 and number 6 is these are people who would walk in a particular situation But there it seemed they were playing only for that tournament It didnt seem like it was anywhere closer to what we got to see in the World CupWe could have given more opportunities to the bench against lowerranked teams in Asia Cup but we didnt Why does the mens team do well Because immediately after a big series or a big tournament theyre trying others If we are talking about depth then when are we giving them chancesAlso ReadMiddle overs strategy under scrutiny Muzumdar laments missed fielding chancesA lot of work was done in the fielding department ahead of the World Cup but it did not produce the desired results Would you agreeAgainst Australia I was very disappointed to see other than Radha Yadav and Jemi to some extent I dont think there was anybody So we cannot have just two players out of eleven being goodIn terms of fitness we need to have a benchmark Honestly how much can you work in a month Its something that you do around the year Its not like just before the tournament you have a camp and its just going to really show the difference on the fieldHarmanpreet Kaur has captained India in T20 World Cups since 2018 but the results have not come Should the selectors move on from her and appoint someone younger If the selectors decide to change I would go for a young captain This is the time to change if you delay more then we have another World Cup on the horizon If you are not doing now then dont do it later Then it is too close to the World CupSmriti is there has been vicecaptain for long but I think someone like Jemima shes 24 shes young she will serve you more And someone who I feel on the field gets that energy She speaks to everybody I was very impressed by her in this tournamentDespite playing those cameo roles she never could convert her starts but someone who really made an effort to build a momentum if there was no momentum and if there was a momentum she tried to carry that momentumThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text 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