India making good progress but they can work on a few things: Mithali Raj
Melbourne [Australia], November 6 (ANI): Former Indian women's team captain Mithali Raj said that India are in an excellent place to make the final, but there are still a few things Men in Blue need to get right if they want to have the best possible chance of winning.
Team India on Sunday close out the Super 12s with a comfortable win over Zimbabwe to top their group - they will play England in Thursday's semi-final at Adelaide.
Suryakumar Yadav is the best T20I batter in the world and living up to that ranking; Virat Kohli has scored runs in every ongoing T20 World Cup match, and Arshdeep Singh has stood up at precisely the right time to help fill the void left by the injured Jasprit Bumrah.
"India are in a good place to make the semi-finals, and with that the final, but there are still a few things they need to get right if they want to have the best possible chance of winning. Firstly, they cannot take the game against Zimbabwe lightly. We know what they did against Pakistan and they had a very close game against Bangladesh, going down to the final ball twice! I really feel India is the favourite when it comes to playing against Zimbabwe but then when you're playing the smaller teams, you need to be mindful to keep the intensity through the game. If at anytime the intensity drops the opposition will start to get the better of you and T20 is so fast-paced that there are few chances for recovery," Mithali Raj told ICC.
Speaking about India's World Cup team, Mithali said that Men in Blue have produced a great performance in the powerplay and their next matches will be a great chance for those players to back into form who haven't started firing as yet in this World Cup.
"You still have to play your game, be your best on every match day. I think India has been good in the power plays with Arshdeep picking up the wickets barring the game against Bangladesh where the Bangladesh batters really got the measure of our bowling especially in the powerplay. That match will also be important to for those players to back into form who haven't started firing as yet in this World Cup. Their form is key for India when they get into the semi-finals. You want all the loose ends settled before the semis," she added.
Talking about the importance of opening pair scoring runs, the former India captain said, "The opening pair needs to fire together because we have not yet had an ideal opening partnership, we've lost wickets in the powerplay. I have been enjoying watching Rohit captain across this World Cup, I think some of his decisions have been brilliant. Some might argue that he could have done this better or that, but every captain makes decisions at the spur of the moment, there are a lot of other factors the captain is considering at that time." (ANI).
Source: Sports