Muzumdar: Leaving out Rodrigues for the England match was one of the hardest choices to make
Muzumdar: Leaving out Rodrigues for the England match was one of the hardest choices to make
India’s head coach, Amol Muzumdar, said dropping Jemimah Rodrigues from the match against England was one of the hardest choices the team had to make. He explained that the decision was based purely on team balance and match conditions.
“Jemimah is a key player and has been an important part of our team,” Muzumdar said. “But sometimes, we have to make tough decisions. The match in Indore had high-scoring conditions, so we felt having six bowlers was the better option.”
Rodrigues, who has scored only 65 runs in four innings and got out without scoring twice, was replaced by fast bowler Renuka Singh.
“It was a tough call, no doubt,” Muzumdar added. “But Jemimah handled it very well and was very supportive.”
Before India’s next match against New Zealand, Rodrigues spent extra time in the nets working on her batting. Muzumdar said they’ll decide on her return to the team on match day.
India has lost three matches in a row against South Africa, Australia, and England—despite being in good positions. Muzumdar admitted the pressure of playing a World Cup at home is real, but believes the team is strong enough to handle it. He also backed young fast bowler Kranti Gaud, who has struggled in her second spells during games.
“There’s always pressure in a home World Cup,” he said. “But this team is built to handle it. Kranti doesn’t have much international experience, but she’s leading our pace attack. We’ve had many talks to help her manage the pressure.”
Although six Indian batters have scored fifties in the tournament, none have made a century yet. Muzumdar said the team is aware of this and is working on it.
“We know no one has scored a hundred yet,” he said. “But in the last 18 months, we’ve seen more centuries than ever before. The players know they could’ve turned those fifties into hundreds. We’ve talked about it honestly, and I’m hopeful we’ll see a century soon.”
He also said there’s no extra pressure on captain Harmanpreet Kaur or Richa Ghosh to win matches alone.
“As a batting group, we’ve discussed reaching a stage where Richa can freely play her shots,” Muzumdar said.