Team India has been eliminated from the ongoing T20 World Cup after losing to Australia in their last group league match. Following their group-stage exit in the mega event, many have commented on changing the captaincy, and former India captain Mithali Raj shared her views on it.
She believed if India are looking at moving on from Harmanpreet Kaur as their captain, now is the time. However, Harmanpreet took over charge after replacing Raj in 2016 and has led the Indian team at four T20 World Cups so far, where they reached at least the semi-finals in the last three editions.
“If the selectors decide to change, I would go for a young captain,” Mithali Raj told PTI. “This is the time [to change]; if you delay more then we have another [ODI] World Cup on the horizon [October 2025]. If you are not doing it now, then don’t do it later. Then it is too close to the World Cup.”
“Smriti [Mandhana, the vice-captain since 2016] is there but I think someone like Jemimah [Rodrigues], she’s 24, she’s young, she will serve you more. And [she] is someone who I feel on the field gets that energy. She speaks to everybody. I was very impressed by her in this tournament. Despite playing those cameo roles, she never could convert her starts, but [she is] someone who really made an effort to build a momentum if there was no momentum; and if there was momentum, she tried to carry that momentum [forward],” she further added.
However, Raj also shared that India’s inability to adapt quickly was the main reason for their poor show as well. Notably, India came into this tournament on the back of two months of camps but lacked match practices unlike Australia or New Zealand, who played each other, or South Africa, who scheduled a late tour to Pakistan as well.
“Surprisingly, we took time to adjust to the slowness of the wicket” – Mithali Raj
“Surprisingly, we took time to adjust to the slowness of the wicket,” Mithali Raj said again. “Unlike an ODI World Cup, it is a short tournament, you don’t have a lot of time to adjust to the conditions. Someone like [New Zealand captain] Sophie Devine was able to score that many runs [57 not out] against us and she is not used to playing on slow tracks. We were not quick enough to adjust.”
However, looking at the bigger picture, Raj opened up on the India team’s lack of “growth” over the past three years. She also felt India had been “content” beating the lower-ranked teams and they were “saturated” when it came to beating big teams like Australia.
“Why does the men’s team do well? Immediately after a big series or a big tournament, they try others. If we are talking about depth, then when are we giving them chances?”
Mithali Raj asked.

“I feel that in the last two-three years, I’ve not really seen any growth in this team,” Raj said. “In the sense, like, I mean, beating the best side is what you always prepare for, but it seems like we are saturated in the sense we are beating other teams, and we are pretty happy in that. Every other team has shown growth despite limited depth, a case in point being South Africa. We have not,” she added.
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However, Mithali Raj also questioned some of the team management’s plans in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup. Like at the Asia Cup, where India chose to field the regular players and did not give opportunities to fringe players as well.
“I was doing commentary in the Asia Cup. To be very honest, I didn’t know what was happening,” she said. “I’m sure they were aware that Asia Cup is the last series of matches that they’re going to play before the World Cup. When you know that this is the last game time that you’re going to have before you enter the big tournament, you do at least 70% of your planning or 80% of your planning. Like who your No. 5 or No. 6 is, these are people who would walk in a particular situation. But there it seemed they were playing only for that tournament.”
“So we cannot have just two players out of 11 being good” – Mithali Raj
“It didn’t seem like it was anywhere closer to… what we got to see in the World Cup. We could have given more opportunities to the bench against lower-ranked teams in Asia Cup, but we didn’t. Why does the men’s team do well? Immediately after a big series or a big tournament, they try others. If we are talking about depth, then when are we giving them chances?,” she questioned again.
However, Mithali Raj was also critical of the fitness levels of some of the Indian players, which she felt caused the dropping catches. Against Australia, India dropped three catches and that could have possibly converted two more half-chances as well.
“Against Australia, I was very disappointed to see, other than Radha Yadav and Jemi to some extent, I don’t think there was anybody,” she said. “So we cannot have just two players out of 11 being good. In terms of fitness, we need to have a benchmark. Honestly, how much can you work in a month? It’s something that you do around the year. It’s not like just before the tournament, you have a camp and it’s just going to really show the difference on the field.”
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