Harmanpreet Kaur, India captain (PC: BCCI Women) The Indian women’s team went to the T20 World Cup riding on the positive vibe of winning the ICC showpiece in the 50-over format last year. All along, however, Diana Edulji, the former India women’s team captain, had maintained that Harmanpreet Kaur and Co needed to have a different approach in the shortest format. In fact, the Indian women’s team in the ODIs and the T20Is are two different entities.

The way India played at the T20 World Cup, they didn’t deserve to qualify for the semi-finals. The women’s selection committee, though, didn’t react. On Tuesday, it put out the squad for the upcoming Asian Games and Yastika Bhatia’s omission was the only significant change.

Maybe, the selectors were remiss not to address the leadership issue. Edulji, who also served as a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the BCCI for a period, concurred. “Yes, absolutely,” she said, speaking to RevSportz.

“I have said that before also. Definitely we need a change not only in the leadership but also in the support staff. I won’t particularly name anybody to take over, that’s for the selectors to decide.

But definitely a change is required because ideas are now stagnated completely, and so we need fresh minds, fresh ideas, and a fresh outlook also.” Harmanpreet has been helming the women’s T20I side since 2016. India have failed to qualify for the knockouts in back-to-back T20 World Cups. Edulji has called for split captaincy and split coaching.

“Don’t we have this split captaincy in the men’s team?” she asked. “We have Shubham Gill in Tests and 50 overs, and Shreyas (Iyer) is now there (as T20I captain). If we could take a call on Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) after winning the World Cup and dropping him, then why not here also?

I think the BCCI should not treat the women’s team with kid gloves anymore.” To put it mildly, India’s fielding, catching to be precise, was poor at the World Cup. And it wasn’t a case in isolation. In fact, this has been a recurring theme.

“Definitely, the fielding coach is accountable for this,” said Edulji. “What was he doing? It’s not the first time we’ve been having this problem.

There should at least be a one-month camp on fitness and fielding. No skills. It’s high time the players come out of their comfort zone.” Edulji has also suggested that there should be a camp for the fast bowler.

“ I think the CoE (BCCI’s Centre of Excellence) should take over — the pacers and make them fit — because after Jhulan (Goswami), I don’t see anybody fitting the bill at all,” she observed. “Nandani Sharma was doing well in the WPL but hardly got any chances. One match you are in, one match you are out.

That doesn’t boost the confidence of a bowler. So we must have a special camp only for the pacers, with about 10 pacers from all over the country.” Edulji is also of the opinion that there should be two different sides for the two formats — ODIs and T20Is. The post appeared first on .