Women’s World Cup: Every outing for India now becomes very critical, says Anjum Chopra

New Delhi, Oct 17 India’s campaign in the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup is in a precarious state as they gear up for a must-win clash against England at the Holkar Stadium on Sunday. Since 2020, India have failed to beat a SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) side in 50-over and 20-over ICC events.

With England riding high on early momentum and being formidable challengers so far, India can’t afford to have another slip-up, as it could derail their quest to enter semi-finals and make an early exit.

In an exclusive conversation with IANS, former India captain and broadcaster Anjum Chopra weighs in on the team’s remaining league fixtures, the five-bowlers combination debate, and solutions to the areas where the batting unit must sharpen up. Excerpts:

Q. With England, New Zealand and Bangladesh still to come, how do you assess India’s chances of making the semi-finals?

A. Well, first and foremost, India needs to get back to winning ways. In the first two games, the result went India's way. Then the next two games, it didn't go their way, although I felt that they picked themselves up very nicely after the loss to South Africa and played good cricket.

It's not that they didn't play good cricket. But probably the hope that we as Indian fans have - that they played good cricket, but they could have played better cricket and maybe resulted in a win. There are a lot of areas which India corrected, and improved - that's why they could reach 330.

But yes, now India needs to get back to winning ways because that is essential. Each and every match will be very critical because with rain around in Colombo, and England obviously having a very good start right from the word go in this World Cup, every outing for India becomes very critical.

Q. India’s five-bowler strategy has come under scrutiny after both South Africa and Australia had successful chases. Do you think it’s time to revisit that balance now?

A. We obviously are well aware of the fact that the five-bowler strategy is not the ideal one. It's not that it wouldn't work, but it's not the ideal one. I have been pretty vocal about the fact that they need six bowlers.

To be fair, if you look at the manner in which India has been trying to get every player fit and ready for this World Cup, they've been undone by Renuka's probably earlier unavailability and then lack of match fitness, as well as Pooja Vastrakar being unavailable completely.

Now, the fact is that if they have to play somebody as a bowler, that bowler is not adequately a good batter and vice versa. So in the top five, nobody bowls and that is not good in terms of an Indian team. Now, I can understand that they worked very hard because they gave opportunities to Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues and everyone to settle into their places.

Now, Richa is obviously doing well enough. But because even Pratika Rawal, right at the top, does not bowl much, that’s not helping the Indian team. So the idea was whether you at least get one area sorted and they've done it - that is pretty much their batting.

Now, their bowling is kind of in a handicap situation because they can't play a sixth bowler and they'll have to sacrifice a batter. So that kind of an all-rounder, they do not have, whether the player is unfit, unavailable or skill-wise, whichever way it goes.

So the situation is, even if India had won, I would have still said that the six bowlers are essential, which I've been pretty vocal about it. Again, I'll say it's not just me - even in the Indian camp, they are well aware of the fact that they need a sixth bowler. But how do they manage to squeeze that sixth bowler in? Because whoever comes in is not adequately skillful enough to do two jobs at the same time.

Q. Persisting with the same XI against Australia was seen as a vote of confidence. In hindsight, do you feel the team missed an opportunity to course-correct after the South Africa loss?

A. The manner in which the teams usually think is if there’s a change, the point would have been that you are panicking in that change room – against South Africa, I thought they lost crucial moments of the game, and that is why they lost. So when you discuss in the team room and you say, fine, we could have done this or that better, fair enough, we back ourselves again to go and beat Australia.

It’s because against Australia, those three matches also, which is the most recent memory of us playing against them, is that we played with the same bowling lineup. So you back yourself up with, ‘okay, fair enough we could have won that game against South Africa, let's back ourselves for the Australian game’. Now, that, again, ends in a loss. You don't discuss a loss, but you also talk about the challenges.

So if I can understand, the challenges in the dressing room were great, but not greater than the fact that you sacrifice a batter for a bowler, because on the outside is either an Arundhati Reddy or a Renuka Singh Thakur - rest all are spinners who are there in the reserves.

Now, that is also a big challenge, because in the reserves also, you don't have anybody who's a fast bowler (Sayali Satghare is there). So again, the discussion must have been around, okay, let's back ourselves up and let's go ahead, put up a good score and go out there and defend it. The challenge, again, we are well aware of is that if one of the bowlers does not fire, you're stuck.

If one of the bowlers does not do well or the opposition is able to take them out, you're stuck. Australia is too strong an opposition and are well aware of what their own strengths and the opposition's weaknesses are.

I mean, look at Australia’s batting order - with the form of someone like Alyssa Healy or any other player - you definitely need more than six bowlers to hope and find those ways of dismissing them. So with only one pronged attack with those five bowlers, somebody someday will have a challenging day, and the opposition is a very strong one.

Q. India so far had quite a few batting collapses, and dot ball percentage is also an issue. What adjustments would you suggest to the side for making improvements in these areas?

A. Again, you don't straightaway start looking at these challenges or problems. It's like this has been there since a long time, and as I say, these are very individual-looking challenges. Sadly, it reflects on the team very badly. Dot ball percentage, I don't think these days players are playing much dot balls.

It's just that the Indian team's inability to rotate the strike - they've fallen back into that same zone where very less rotation of strike used to happen. Look at the number of boundaries India hit and that Australia hit, and the number of dot balls played. It's not that Australia or South Africa or any other team does not play them.

But we could have easily got at least 50 runs extra to where we were against Australia. We got 330 - at least 20 to 25 singles we had missed. After scoring a boundary, we've played out dot balls. After hitting a four, we've missed out on a six, or played the ball straight into the fielder's hands. There were chances where you could have run better between the wickets as well.

Again, it's easier said than done, but this is my view. We could have got those runs, and missing out on seven crucial balls, where there was an opportunity to score and the Indian team let go of that. So, one reflects the other and there is no reason to have a batting collapse. I mean, this is where probably any and every team looks to focus upon.

Again, it boils down to individual preparation and being game-aware. I mean, if you're losing a wicket on a ball which is pitched straight at you, when you're hitting the ball in the air where you are not even sure whether you can clear the fence or not, is it avoidable? Is it worth the risk? The answer is there, that is no, it's not.

If you can't clear the fence like Richa Ghosh, please do not even try clearing the boundary - it's always good. You had Sneh Rana at the other end, who could probably be a better bet trying to hit the ball out of the park or maybe getting a four or rotate the strike. So, I thought that was an error from an Indian team perspective.

But if I look at it from the team's perspective, I think Kranti Gaud playing her first World Cup, nerves do come into play and take over. But again, once you're playing for India, I'm sure these situations you would have practiced yourself, but the result didn't come out to be like that.

Q. How much helpful can an almost week-long break from the WC be for the Indian team?

A. A week-long break helps most of the time - at least in this scenario, it will help because it's not just the players, even the support staff need time to rethink, and look at something else away from the game. Yet at the same time, when it's a very long break, you're still in that zone, trying to cut away, and not think about the tournament. But it's there every day on television in front of you, and you're also thinking on how can we become better overnight.

The surprising part is, it's not that the Indian team would not have been aware of this scenario or the situation leading up to the World Cup for the last couple of years. What I feel bad for them also is the fact that because of the unavailability of players, they could not do much. The bunch of players that is available - this is the best possible bunch available.

So it's not that they've left somebody out that they could have brought in. The feeling is that in the last couple of years, could the situation have been handled or prepared for better? I'm not saying the answer is a yes.

But then from where we have been playing, when we know the situation will be like this, how better prepared could an Indian team have been? Also, there’s too much reliance on the spinners - it’s because we don't have those out-and-out fast bowlers. When you look at, again, coming into a World Cup home scenario, the losses probably will hurt.

If you look searching for answers, I'll say the two losses to Australia and South Africa, and the way the Indian team lost, probably they will hurt them more than probably going back and saying, wish we had these players available with us and we could have done a slightly more better work. I guess in these limited resources that an Indian team has, they've done pretty well, but losses would hurt them.

Q. The World Cup is rarely forgiving for mid-tournament experimentation. Do you think India still has room to make that experiment, or is it time to lock in a Plan A and back it fully?

A. It depends on what you are experimenting with or what you are willing to... I won't use the word experiment. I'll say option B. So it depends, again, what is it that you're coming in with option B or option C. As I say, I feel bad for the options that they have. They don't have the luxury of rotation of their spinners or rotating their fast bowlers.

If everyone was fit and raring to go and match fit, possibly those changes would have come in maybe in the second game itself. But because they are handicapped with very few options that they can to fall back on or to rotate, that's why you can understand what those thought processes would be like for the Indian team.

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