The inability to win knock-out games in ICC tournaments has been a worrying trend for Indian women’s team in recent times. Whether it’s the Women’s ODI World Cup in 2017 or Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020, Indian team faltered exactly at the business end of these tournaments.
While talking about the heart-breaking loss to Australia in the T20 World Cup earlier this year, Indian leg-spinner Poonam Yadav feels that India’s failure to handle pressure in big games has cost them some big matches.
“I feel we are right up there. The variety that we have most teams don’t, including Australia. After doing so well in knock-outs, we start thinking about the result and what we will do after (we win) rather than staying in the present and following the process like we do it in the earlier stages of the tournament,” Yadav told PTI.
“It is all about handling pressure in the big games and whoever does it better wins. Australia handled it much better than us (in T20 WC final),” she added.
Australia demolished India in front of 86,000 viewers at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), courtesy explosive innings from Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney.
Chasing 184 in 20 innings, India couldn’t even cross the 100-run mark and lost that match by 85 runs.
Poonam further talked about how difficult it will be for players to turn up instantly after a long hiatus from cricket due to a coronavirus outbreak.
“If you turn up at the ground after four-five months, it will be very difficult to perform instantly for all players. But we are keeping ourselves fit and when we are allowed to resume group training, we should be back to full fitness in 20-25 days,” asserted Yadav.
