Jemimah Rodrigues acknowledged that India’s fielding fell short during the 0-3 series loss to Australia at home. The standout batter recognized the numerous mistakes and admitted to having too many “bad days.” She assured that the team would “come back stronger.”
Under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur, India missed seven opportunities in the second ODI, leading to a three-run defeat. The trend continued in the third ODI on Tuesday, with more missed half chances as the Women in Blue suffered a substantial 190-run loss.
“I don’t think there’s any reason we can give, we need to accept what we’ve done. We’ve not played to our highest potential, especially in the fielding department there’s a lot of work we need to still continue (doing).”
“We have been working on it but definitely not the standard expected from the Indian women’s cricket team. But I can assure you that we will work on it and come back stronger,” Jemimah, one of the standout batters in the series, stated after the match.
“I don’t think it’s anything to do with fatigue. And I think it’s just something we need to really work on. I wouldn’t blame anything because we’ve been getting everything – the practices we want, the light practices (under floodlights) and everything.”
“I just can’t say it was a bad day because a bad day can’t keep on coming again and again. But again I’m telling you, we promise you that we are going to work hard on this aspect,” Jemimah added.
The women’s team has been grappling with fielding issues for quite some time, resembling the initial challenges faced by the men’s team in fielding when they began playing frequent international matches post the 1960s.
“We require a bit more time”- Jemimah Rodrigues
Despite efforts to provide the team with facilities equivalent to the men’s side, some critics point to coaching staff inconsistency as a factor behind the errors. The new coach, Amol Mazumdar, took over in October 2023, 10 months after the departure of the previous coach, Romesh Powar.
Jemimah stated that the team needs more time to work well together, understand Coach Mazumdar and his staff, and move forward together.
“It’s a new coaching staff. We’ve not spent a lot of time with Amol sir, whatever time we’ve spent is just before the series could start. But before that, for Amol sir to understand the girls, I think he’s done his homework before coming in.”
“But then coming in and gelling up, and even for the girls to gel up with Amol sir…because it’s not easy whenever a new coach comes in but I think the best part of our team was everyone gelled up well. And everyone understood each other and the roles really well and really quick,” Jemimah said.
“But of course we need a little more time, maybe some camp where we can actually get to work together even more because that’s just going to help us. But I think having Amol sir has really helped us a lot and the girls have gelled up really well with him.”
“We are very comfortable and he’s very comfortable with us. But for us it’s just about how we are going to get better. About the T20s we’ve not had a conversation yet, because we kept it for after the ODIs, we wanted to go one match at a time,” she added.
India Women are set to face Australia in a three-match T20I series starting on January 5.
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