'Fearless' only in words? India's timid batting, baffling tactics hand Australia easy passage

When Harmanpreet Kaur speaks about the brand of cricket her team wants to play, the word fearless is never far away from making an appearance. On Sunday at Lord's, when the going got tough, she was able to live up to that word. Her form coming into the big match against Australia wasn't great; her batting template in T20Is – taking time to settle in, usually when wickets fall, and not being able to catch up – is (rightly) worth criticism. But when pushed into a corner, especially by Australia in a big match on the biggest of stages, she usually responds with a few punches of her own.

Unfortunately for India, except for Harmanpreet at the end and Shafali Verma at the top, fearless isn't the adjective one would use to describe the rest of their batting effort. To score 170/4 on a good batting pitch with boundaries shorter than some of the other venues seen at this year's ICC Women's T20 World Cup proved woefully inadequate as Australia registered a tournament record run-chase with a significant cushion of one over to spare.

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Nothing illustrates India's strangely conservative approach better than this: their most powerful ball-striker in the middle overs, Richa Ghosh, faced just one delivery in the match, coming out to bat only in the 20th over. In stark contrast, Australia know the value of their most potent middle-order weapon in Ashleigh Gardner, and have no hesitation in sending her out early, instead of just earmarking her for a strict end-over-basher role. Both Ghosh and Gardner batted at No 5, but the Aussie star came in during the 10th over and smashed a 29-ball 53 with three fours and three sixes.

India refuse to show courage

India are no strangers to the 'retired out' scenario. They used the strategy in the recent bilateral series against England when Yastika Bhatia was struggling to get a move on in the run chase. It did not pay off that day as the move to send in Jemimah Rodrigues to increase the scoring rate didn't pan out, but that's the thing about making decisions in sport – just because the result wasn't ideal on one occasion, doesn't make the thought process invalid. India were right to pull Bhatia out of action that day as early as the 15th over.

But with significantly higher stakes, against the world's best team, India refused to show courage. Rodrigues was the batter struggling this time, At the end of 16th over, she was on 20 off 18 balls. At the end of 17th, 23 off 21. After 18th, 26 off 24. And after a lucky six in the 19th over, when on 34 off 28, India finally decided to take her off and bring Ghosh on. Any of those aforementioned entry points, would have been ideal for India's best six-hitter, especially with skewed boundary sizes.

Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues had contrasting outings with the bat during India's must-win clash against Australia, with one smashing a 26-ball fifty and the other getting 'retired hurt' on 34. AFP

This is not to bring Rodrigues down or to single her out for India's defeat. Everyone has off days, and it is only recently that the Mumbaikar showed the value of gritting it out in the middle in another massive contest against Australia – at the ODI World Cup semi-final, where she went through the ups and downs to emerge as the match-winner in sensational fashion. But the mark of a good side, aware of its strengths and weaknesses, is the ability to take the tough calls under pressure. Away from the heat of the battle, the team management singularly failed to recognise the opportunity to up the ante. As has been evident for a while, India needed to post above-par totals to stand a chance against good batting teams because of the inexperience in their bowling attack. And once more, they fell short.

Buck stops with leadership group

The problem wasn't just with Rodrigues' innings. Smriti Mandhana, usually not one to waste deliveries when struggling for rhythm, did not get a move on. Her timing seemed alright – two crisply struck boundaries through the leg side early in the piece were signs that she was again in good touch – but she struggled to find the gaps right through her stay at the crease. And just when she was looking to at least take a few more risks in the middle, she was involved in a massive mix-up with Rodrigues and was run out tamely.

The bottom line is that Harmanpreet's sensational late burst gave India a decent total to work with, but it was the lack of such an adventurous approach from her teammates against Australia, and herself against South Africa, that has seen India crash out of the group stages. Sure, the bowling – especially the pace unit – rarely clicked. Sure, the fielding was below par. Those were the skill issues. But the buck stops with the leadership group for failing to walk the talk after constantly preaching a 'fearless brand of cricket.'