Women's Asia Cup: India's head coach highlights area of concern
What's the story
Despite India's record eighth Women's Asia Cup title, head coach Amol Muzumdar has acknowledged that there is "scope for improvement," particularly in fielding. India beat Sri Lanka in the final, but dropped five catches during the match. Muzumdar said he was glad to have areas to work on as a coach and emphasized their focus on various aspects of the game during training camps.
Training focus
Emphasis on fielding and fitness
Muzumdar stressed the importance of fielding and fitness in their pre-tournament camp.
"A lot of emphasis was put on the fielding aspect, the fitness part was looked after really well in the camp prior to this tournament," he said after the match.
"We've been working really hard on certain aspects where we think that there is a lot of scope for improvement and we march ahead. We don't get satisfied with any tournament."
Batting prowess
Batting charts for Team India
India's batting was largely dependent on their opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma.
Shafali topped the run-scorers' chart with 236 runs at a strike rate of 171.01, while Mandhana came second with 213 runs.
Harmanpreet Kaur was India's next best batter with 71 runs at a strike rate of 91.02.
Pratika Rawal, who missed out on the final match, scored 56 runs from four innings at an impressive strike rate of 98.24 during the tournament.
Middle-order stability
Muzumdar unperturbed by middle-order concerns
Despite India's middle-order batting not performing as expected, Muzumdar was unperturbed.
He said, "We've had some lovely scores given the conditions here. I don't think there was anything [worrying] regarding the middle order."
He praised Shafali and Mandhana's opening partnerships and acknowledged that such things can happen in T20 cricket.
Final performance
G Kamalini's talent impressed Muzumdar
G Kamalini, who replaced Rawal for the final match, showed her T20 skills. She came in at No. 7 with seven balls left to play and scored an unbeaten 15 off five balls.
Muzumdar praised her talent and said, "She just proved how talented she is."
He also noted that the momentum that they got to in the last over just propelled them toward a better first six overs in fielding as well.