Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: Another WC, another nightmare campaign for teams from the subcontinent

India has suffered four group-stage exits in T20 World Cup history, all coming when the tournaments were hosted by Asian nations. Its neighbours haven’t fared too well either, having never made the knockouts till date.

After Pakistan lost to New Zealand, India made an exit in the group stage, ending hopes of a subcontinent team in the knockouts of this edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup. | Photo Credit: ICC via Getty Images

New Zealand’s win over Pakistan in the Women’s T20 World Cup saw the latter get knocked out, along with India, on Monday. It meant that no subcontinent team remained in contention in the tournament.

In the nine editions of the T20 World Cup so far, only India has made the knockouts, reaching the semifinals five times. In contrast, its four group-stage exits (2012 in Sri Lanka, 2014 in Bangladesh, 2016 in India and 2024 in the UAE) have all been in editions hosted in Asia.

The India of 2024 is very different from that of 2016 - the last World Cup where it didn’t get past the group stage. But the conditions are eerily similar. The wickets are low and slow here too, troubling the batters. India failed with the bat, struggling to stitch solid partnerships. Fielding was a worry, then too.

But the team has undergone several major changes too. Of the four subcontinental sides in this World Cup, India was the strongest, in terms of world ranking and its competitive ecosystem.

A robust and fairly set-in-stone domestic structure and two seasons of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) have given domestic cricketers a visible platform to show selectors and the senior set-up that they have what it takes to be part of the Indian national side.

The biggest beneficiary of the tournament has been pacer Arundhati Reddy, who was out of the national side for a few years and clawed her way back with solid performances for the Delhi Capitals. Backing from captain Meg Lanning (a seven-time World Cup winner for Australia) helped increase her game time from four games in 2023 to every game in 2024, over which she’s proven to be an economical bowling partner to pace spearhead Shikha Pandey.

Arundhati Reddy in action during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and Pakistan at Dubai International Stadium. | Photo Credit: ICC via Getty Images

The creamy layer of players from the Indian ecosystem – such as Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues – have also been plying their trade in international leagues all around the world. Deepti’s six famously clinched a maiden title for London Spirit in The Hundred. Jemimah Rodrigues was at the Caribbean Premier League with Trinbago Knight Riders, finishing as runner-up.

India came into the current edition with elaborate plans, including experimentation with the batting lineup in 10 months leading to the World Cup.

While Sri Lanka and Pakistan had international fixtures between the Asia Cup and the World Cup (against Ireland and South Africa respectively), India and Bangladesh (largely due to the political strife in the latter) did not.

An A-team from India toured Australia with only Sajeevan Sajana from that team making it to UAE. Chief selector Neetu David said the idea was to test and prepare India’s bench ahead of the two important World Cups in Asia.

Back home, separate camps for fitness, fielding and skills were held in Bengaluru. This involved intra-squad games whose competitiveness coach Amol Muzumdar drew confidence from. In wanting to bolster the bowling without compromising on the batting order, he further declared that the top five should also chip in with the ball.

But when action got underway, it was a below-par show with India managing just two wins in four games, both coming against the weaker sides in the ‘Group of Death’. Of the two, only one was truly comfortable - the 82-run drubbing of Sri Lanka in its third group fixture.

New Zealand’s Georgia Plimmer and Sophie Devine set the foundations for a famous win against the Indians in their opening game. It was a great way to break a dubious streak of 10 straight T20I losses – beating one of the favourites to win the tournament.

New Zealand’s captain Sophie Devine celebrates her fifty runs during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Stadium. | Photo Credit: AP

India bounced back in the next match, beating Pakistan by six wickets. However, India was far from dominant in that game, crawling its way to the target when a faster, more purposeful effort was needed to better the Net Run Rate.

The final nail in the coffin was a close nine-run loss against Australia where India’s age-old fault lines came to the fore. India failed to secure a place in the knockouts for the first time under Harmanpreet’s captaincy.

Unifying problems

Surrounding India are three systems struggling for stability -- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, all of which have depended largely on their captains for results without much depth.

Led by Fatima Sana in this World Cup, Pakistan – much like the men’s side – has stagnated due to questionable selections, constant change of leadership and lack of a steady domestic framework. The team not receiving four months of their salaries has also not helped the cause.

Fatima Sana revealed Pakistan is focusing on power hitting as a priority in its batting process | Photo Credit: Getty Images

In a must-win clash against New Zealand, eight catches were dropped, many of them regulation chances. Pakistan’s batting has been its biggest weakness, with just a couple of players (Sana included) looking competitive at this level.

RELATED: New Zealand beats Pakistan to enter semifinal, India crashes out

Nigar Sultana has had a similar story in Bangladesh. While the bowling unit has taken 19 of the possible 40 wickets in group games, the other departments have not kept up.

In the run-up to the World Cup, Nigar was the only consistent batter in the side. In this World Cup, she has found help from Sobhana Mostary -- she has scored 134 runs in four games -- but that is pretty much it.

Teams that adapted quickly managed to put up par scores on the board. Batting depth and role flexibility, as in the case of Australia, was key to success on these surfaces. Bangladesh has sadly not been able to string team performances in this edition. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

“There were a lot of individual performances but we couldn’t put together a combined team effort in this World Cup,” a visibly exhausted Nigar said after Bangladesh’s last group game, a seven-wicket loss by South Africa.

Asian champion Sri Lanka came into the tournament on a high, led by Chamari Athapaththu. But that bubble burst quite spectacularly in the group stage, more so with Athapaththu having a tournament to forget with the bat.

“In this (World Cup) everybody expected us to be, not the top dog but the top underdog, so to speak – the team which would beat the best teams. And we were in this group where we had some very strong teams and we wanted to win those games,” head coach Rumesh Ratnayake said after the end of their campaign.

League cricket has been seen as an important way to level the playing field. Giving players a chance to upskill themselves and gaining confidence from rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the world are just some of the upsides. Sri Lanka has been twiddling with the idea of a T10 league for its women, while talks of Pakistan’s drive to launch a Women’s PSL have been in the ideation stage for years now.

Acclimatising to conditions

From Harmanpreet to Athapaththu, all captains underlined the need to get used to conditions in the UAE. They were poles apart even between the two venues. Sharjah was a spin haven with low-scoring games unfolding at the venue, while Dubai was conducive to pacers and better batting performances.

While participating sides came stacked with spin resources, it was batting that was the true leveller. There have only been four instances of teams crossing 150 in this tournament – New Zealand (160/4 vs India), India (172/3 vs Sri Lanka), South Africa (166/5 vs Scotland) and Australia (151/8 vs India). With the final group game to go between England and West Indies, the average team score in this tournament has been a low 111.45.

India was the strongest in this pool, managing an average team score of 131, miles ahead of Bangladesh (106.25), Sri Lanka (95.75) and Pakistan (89.75).

Teams that adapted quickly managed to put up par scores on the board. Batting depth and role flexibility, as in the case of Australia, was key to success on these surfaces.

Among teams from the subcontinent, India was the strongest in terms of scores, managing an average of 131, ahead of Bangladesh (106.25), Sri Lanka (95.75) and Pakistan (89.75). | Photo Credit: Getty Images

England, Australia and South Africa, despite being outside the subcontinental canopy, have fared well on these surfaces, using their batting acumen.

UAE’s surfaces, by themselves, were new for every participating team.

Scotland and Sri Lanka, having played the qualifiers in Abu Dhabi, were familiar with the testing climate here, but not with the challenges posed by the different tracks in Sharjah and Dubai.

For the other participating teams, the heat in the UAE was potentially the biggest adversary. Australia prepared for it with long sauna sessions during their series against New Zealand and a heat exposure regimen using protocols developed by the Australian Olympic Commission for the Tokyo Summer Games. Increased sweating was done to get used to the humidity.

England trained for the impact of moisture on the ball by pouring water over their cricket balls and activating sprinklers during fielding drills to simulate how conditions could be in Sharjah in particular.

Academic approach: Maia Bouchier on batting in the UAE - “I’ve been working a lot in the nets about just watching and reacting to the ball. I’m making sure that I’ve been really still at the crease. These pitches have worked out quite well for my game.” | Photo Credit: AP

Ahead of their departure, Muzumdar said he anticipated conditions to be similar in Bangladesh – the original host of the World Cup – and UAE, which eventually hosted the tournament.

“In my experience from the IPL, in the initial part of the tournament, we can expect bounce especially in Dubai. But overhead conditions remain the same,” Muzumdar had said.

In any case, preparing for the hot and humid Middle East in pleasant Bengaluru might not have been the best decision the think tank made.

Anticipating dry wickets, while spin to win was the mantra going here, seamers have shared an even slice of the pie with the top 10 wicket-takers evenly split between pace and spin. Three bowlers from the subcontinent, two Indians and one from Pakistan, make the list and only one among them -- Pakistan’s Sadia Iqbal (six wickets in four games) -- is a spinner.

Bangladesh’s Fahima Khatun and Ritu Moni (with five wickets each) come towards the end of the top 15, while there is no Sri Lankan in this bracket at all.

With another World Cup, a 50-over one this time, a year away and in India, the challenges remain the same, as do the fault lines. If this World Cup has underlined one trick for better fortunes, it is consistency - of performance, planning and faith in one’s strategies.

Pakistan coach Mohammad Wasim summarized his team’s campaign on the same note, which rings true for their neighbours too.

“We have some time before that World Cup. There were positives and we need to do them consistently. Under pressure also you need to back yourself and stick to the plans. I could see that we’re not sticking to the plans for whatever reason. It’s the pressure or it’s just self-created doubts, I would say more. Hopefully, next time, you will see a better performance.”