CWG 2022, cricket: With new attitude in tow, India look to raise the bar

Only once in my 15-year career, was I involved in a ‘Players Only’ meeting. That one was a little scary for me, purely because I was new to the Indian team at the time. ‘Did we do something wrong’ I wondered? I won’t say what was discussed in it, but let me tell you this much: A ‘Players Only’ meeting means the sh*t is getting real.

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The Indian women’s cricket team recently had a ‘Player’s Only’ meeting, ahead of their tour to Sri Lanka last month. And judging by what we’ve seen from India on the field since then, it was not a scary one. It was a good one.

India whitewashed Sri Lanka in the ODI series. India won the T20I series 2-1. These were expected results. But then India came to the Commonwealth Games, and pushed Australia like few teams have in the recent past, coming very close to beating them.

If Australia were pushed, Pakistan were pulverised. Once Pakistan’s 50-run second wicket stand was snapped, India strangled the rest of the batting, claiming the next eight wickets for 49 runs. And then, Smriti Mandhana put the foot on the proverbial throat, smashing the fifth ball she faced for six over mid on. India chased down Pakistan’s target of 100 in the 12th over losing two wickets, operating at a run rate close to 9. There were no jitters, no opportunity to let the chatter around an India-Pakistan game affect them. It was about getting the job done. While entertaining the crowd, the largest seen at Edgbaston so far.

And it was deliberate: “The message is clear for us. Before the Sri Lanka series we definitely had a word about it, talking about the kind of culture we want to set for for the next generation and the kind of cricket we want to play for the next few years” said Mandhana, who finished with 63* off 42. “We took all the inputs from all the players and all the inputs were definitely in one direction: that we have to go out there and just be little more aggressive than what we have been.”

This aggression looks like calculated risk-taking, the kind we saw from Harmanpreet Kaur, who successfully backed her sweep against Australia despite that team sometimes setting two deep square legs to her. And Mandhana, focusing on timing the ball rather than smashing it like her opening partner Shafali Verma does. “It’s not about taking unnecessary risk, but you know, expressing ourselves.”

That term may be cliche in the elite sporting world, but it’s also significant that a group of Indian female players identified it. “That was one takeaway all 15 of us actually believed in. That thought of going out there and trying to set the culture for the generations to come. Hopefully we can set a standard where we reach closer to winning regularly.”

This was the same meeting in which, as Harmanpreet shared, a younger member of the team came up with the thought of developing the ‘killing attitude’.

“I had asked all the girls, what is the thing that we want to set for the team? Pooja (Vastrakar) gave a good answer, that killing attitude. Right now, we’re working for that. Whenever we are doing something, playing or training, we are trying to create that mahaul jaha pe sab isi ke upar baat karte hai. That killing attitude is something everyone is talking about and working on.”

It’s too early to say how far this new attitude will take the Indian team. But players taking ownership, independent of the team management, is a step in the right direction. One thing can be said with confidence: the Edgbaston crowd contained plenty of young boys and girls. If this is the next generation Mandhana is looking to influence, what they saw on Sunday will surely leave a good impression.

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