Problem aplenty for India Women’s middle-order ahead of ODI World Cup

The Indian team won the final match in the ODI series against England in Worcester just a few days ago. Despite Mithali Raj carrying the Indian team to a win, it wasn’t anything more than a consolation. In addition to this, it was just another reflection of India’s middle-order being in trouble months ahead of the 2022 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.

Deep dive into the numbers

There have been some issues in the Indian middle-order series in England and the five-match series against South Africa earlier. The Indian team’s batting is used to revolving around mostly around Mithali Raj, but there are factors that make this a problem, which mainly has to do with the strike rate and dot ball percentage. In one of the matches against England, the team faced 200 dot balls. That is 66.66% dot balls in an innings of 300 deliveries. And this has been a pattern for some time.

Rotating the strike is a big issue in India’s batting lineup. The strike rate in middle-overs is pretty low. They have to earn the powerplay for it. At least one player has to look for boundaries. If it continues like this, we cannot reach 280-300 in ODIs. #INDWvsENGW

— CHARLIE (@CharlieGulshan) June 27, 2021

India’s middle-order batting is two-fold. First is Mithali Raj at No. 4 and someone between Punam Raut and Jemimah Rodrigues at No. 3. Raut has been quite successful in the past couple of years. Since 2018, she has in fact been India’s second-best middle-order batter after Mithali. Rodrigues has scored 602 runs at an average of 50.16. However, her strike rate of 62.06 is worrying. A look at Mithali’s numbers tells that even though she averages 53.04 in ODIs since 2018, her strike rate is just a little better than that of Raut, 63.43.

The problem with higher averages with such a low strike rate in limited-overs cricket is that batters consume a lot of deliveries in a situation where deliveries are limited. It essentially means you are cutting off balls for others, who might have batted at a higher strike rate and got slightly more runs. This is where the problem begins.

Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma have not scored with the bat and have lacked pace in 50 overs cricket. Kaur’s strike rate since 2018 has been 68 while Sharma’s has been 63. With the current fielding restrictions in place, it becomes important for teams to make an impact in the middle overs. Since 2018, among batters around the world who have batted between no. 3 and no. 7, India’s record is the worst. Indian middle-order scores with a strike rate of 64.73.

Looking ahead

India will definitely get runs from the top and maybe their bowling will help them win a few matches. However, when they reach finals or semi-finals of a big event, the difference often is very little. The issue with the strike rate and failure to reduce the dot ball percentage could turn out to be the reason behind their downfall in the upcoming World Cup.