We’ve not played to our highest potential, says Jemimah after conceding series sweep to Australia

There has been a lot of chatter about Jemimah’s batting position, with the batter sticking to a lower middle-order slot to accommodate Richa Ghosh at number 3.

Jemimah Rodrigues in action during the 3rd ODI against Australia. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI/The Hindu

India batter Jemimah Rodrigues admitted that the side’s performance was not up to the standards in its 0-3 drubbing at the hands of Australia in the ODI leg of the multi-format series.

“I don’t think there’s any reason we can give for our performance. We need to accept what we’ve done. We’ve not played to our highest potential, especially in the fielding department, I think a lot of work remains to be done. We have been working on it, but it’s definitely not of the standard expected for the Indian Women’s team. I can assure you that we will work on it and come back stronger,” Jemimah said after India’s 190-run loss to Australia in the third ODI here on Tuesday.

There has been a lot of chatter about Jemimah’s batting position, with the batter sticking to a lower middle-order slot to accommodate Richa Ghosh at number 3.

“I am comfortable batting anywhere from one to 11. You saw how Richa got going, being aggressive at the start and once settled in, she took the game away. Once the field is spread, I am very good at manipulating gaps, running between the wickets and building partnerships. I think it was communicated very well to me because in ODIs, I usually bat at number four or number five as I did in the Bangladesh series. So I don’t think there was anything major that happened or a shift,” she explained.

Jemimah also revealed that she was fighting a fever a night before she scored a hard-fought 82 in the first ODI.

“A lot of people don’t know but I was having fever the previous night. The next morning I was feeling much better. However, after a while, there is a lot of weakness and that day for some reason, Mumbai was extremely hot. But I knew Smriti (Mandhana) was not well and she was not playing so I was like we are already one batter down, I can’t afford to miss this game. The maximum that will happen was that I’d faint. During that innings, because it was extremely hot, I was coughing a lot. I went out and puked and that helped me feel much better and lighter. I would rate that innings high, personally,” she added.