“Well, that’s a good thing to have, isn’t it, as a coach, that there is something for us to work on,” Muzumdar said when asked about India’s fielding lapses – they dropped five catches in the final against Sri Lanka – and occasionally poor running between the wickets. “I think there are so many aspects of the game that we really focus on in our camps, it’s real hard work that we put in.
“[Before the Asia Cup] a lot of emphasis was put on the fielding aspect, the fitness part was looked after really well in the in the camp prior to this tournament, and also the running between wickets. So yeah, we’ve been working really hard on certain aspects where we think that there is a lot of scope for improvement and we march ahead. We don’t get satisfied with any tournament. Once the tournament is over, we look forward for the next one.”
Muzumdar, however, didn’t seem worried.
“We’ve had some lovely scores given the conditions here. I don’t think there was anything [worrying] regarding the middle order. We don’t have any concerns regarding that,” he said. “We have had some amazing opening partnerships: Shafali and Smriti have been batting really well. And that’s the nature of the game, T20 cricket. You cannot have just everyone shooting… and scoring runs. So yeah, there will be moments in in the T20 match, and we are well aware of that.”
“She just proved how talented she is,” Muzumdar said. “She was slotted in to play at No. 3 [a straight swap for Rawal], but as the game unfolded, we had to push her down the order. But she came out really superbly towards the end. The momentum that we got to in the last over just propelled us towards a better first six overs in fielding as well. Her knock really helped, and I’m glad that people are putting their hands up for the places.”
