MUMBAI: India’s campaign in the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup in England is stuttering, thanks to a stinging six-wicket defeat at Manchester at the hands of South Africa last Sunday. The Women-In-Blue must now beat both Bangladesh, whom they are playing at Old Trafford in Manchester at the time of writing this, on Thursday and world champions Australia at Lord’s on Sunday to harbour any hopes of making it to the last four of the competition. One of the major reasons India, the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup champions, are looking shaky is because skipper Harmanpreet Kaur hasn’t looked at her fluent, aggressive best. Before the crucial match against Bangladesh at Manchester, Harmanpreet made scores of 36 off 35 balls against Pakistan, 12 off nine balls at Leeds against The Netherlands at and 24 off 22 against South Africa. In both matches, India lost early wickets, leaving the experienced campaigner to rebuild the innings. However, the 37-year-old has failed to capitalize on her starts, which means India have been completely banking on explosive ‘keeper-bat Richa Ghosh to power them in the death overs.Former India women’s team captain Diana Edulji feels that Harmanpreet should stick to her normal, attacking approach, instead of looking for consolidation. “Harman should stick to her natural, attacking game basically. ‘Just go all out, don’t worry about who is supposed to bat after her, because there Richa (Ghosh), Deepti (Sharma) and another bowling allrounder if she gets out. Harman is at her best when she is attacking. When she is attacking, there will be no bowler to stop her. So she should play her natural game, especially when we get a good start. Yes, she can look to rotate the strike, get singles and doubles to get the circulation in her legs going, but after that, she should go all out. And now, she has to do it, they (the Indian women’s team) have no choice. This is a do-or-die situation,” Edulji said at the launch of the book ‘Her Story, Her Glory,’ penned by Aditya Bhushan at the Cricket Club of India on Thursday.“Presently, she is not playing a ‘free game.’ Something is holding her back. She has to free herself up. There are others who can play around her,” Edulji added. On a positive note, Edulji hoped that Harmanpreet & Co would take inspiration from their magnificent comeback they staged to clinch the Women’s ODI World Cup in India last year, when they came back from the brink, after losing to South Africa, Australia and England, to beat New Zealand (in a must-win last league match), Australia (in the semis) and South Africa (in the final). “We showed it in the 50 overs (World Cup) after losing three (matches) on the trot, and then we beat Australia in the semifinals, So, they (the Indian women’s team) will have to take that into account. In 2017 also, we beat Australia in the semifinals and entered the finals, but this loss against South Africa is a big blow to us, and that has put, I think, a little bit of doubt into going forward, because now we will have to play out of our skins,” she felt.Edulji felt that the fast-paced T20 game wasn’t really the forte of the Indian women’s team, as their batters tended “to consume too many dot balls.” “Basically our game is suited for ODIs. T20 cricket is a little difficult for us, because we consume a lot of dot balls. We are still not into rotating the strike, and that is the problem we have. Though we are getting good starts, luckily for us in this World Cup, we’ve not been able to finish off well, and we need to do it. We got two very crucial matches (from here),” the ex-left-arm spin ace said.
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