3 issues to address for the Indian Women's Cricket Team

Even as the cricketing world consoles with Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft and the entire Australian cricketing fraternity recovers from the aftermath of the ball-tampering saga in South Africa, there have been other cricket happening around the world.

The Australian Women's cricket team is currently in India and they have been in good form, beating the hosts India 3-0 in the ODI series and then booking a spot in the tri-series final against England on Saturday.

For India, it has been a disappointing few weeks and ahead of the ODI series against England, which commences from the 6th of April.

Here are three issues they need to address:

Backup for Jhulan Goswami- nowhere in sight?

Jhulan Goswami missed the ODI series against Australia, that preceded the T20I Tri-series at home. and one could see that the Indian bowling lacked a significant amount of teeth.

The other bowlers in the squad went in excess of 5 runs per over on a consistent basis and it meant that the pressure was squarely on the batters to deliver.

There is no doubting the importance of Goswami to this side and she still seems good enough to carry on for a few more years, however, from a squad-building perspective, it would certainly help the squad if they begin to look at newer talent and blood them.

C

Current bowling crop needs to buck up and start performing

As mentioned in the previous slide, the current bowling group did suffer a great deal in the ODIs against Australia.

The likes of Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, and the spinners could not apply any breaks on the Australian batting line-up, who powered their way through in good batting conditions in Vadodara.

One of the reasons why India did well in South Africa as well as the World Cup last year was because the bowling complemented the batting extremely well.

The England batting line-up will have a fair idea already of the present Indian bowling unit having faced them in the T20I series and it will be up to the hosts to find a way to restrict England in the ODI series.

#1 Is Mithali Raj batting at the right position?

What Goswami brings to the table with the ball, Mithali Raj brings with the bat- loads and loads of experience.

However, during the Australia ODI series, the right-hander did not have the greatest of times with the bat and will look to get back to her run-scoring ways in the ODI series against England.

It could help her and the team's cause if instead of four, she bats at three. That would mean that if an early wicket falls, she would get enough time to settle in and craft a big innings.

It's something we saw in the World Cup last year that she was able to convert starts and make a big contribution to the side.

She may well be into her 30s, but there is no questioning her quality and importance to this present team.