India vs England: Shikha Pandey feels visitors’ struggles not entirely on batters, team needs to be in ‘better rhythm’
India vs England: Shikha Pandey feels visitors’ struggles not entirely on batters, team needs to be in ‘better rhythm’
Admin
Worcester: Indian women's team pacer Shikha Pandey feels it would be unfair to blame only the batters for their ongoing struggles in the UK as they need to get into a "better rhythm" as a team.
Having already lost the ODI series, India will be aiming to win the dead rubber on Saturday to gain some momentum ahead of the T20I series.
Barring skipper Mithali Raj and young opener Shafali Verma, the batters have struggled and have not posted enough runs for the bowlers to defend.
"I wouldn't say batting is the main concern. I can give you a player's perspective, when I get into a game, we think about all the three aspects of the game together, so if the batters cannot really get us runs, it is us as the bowlers, bowling unit, we need to fight hard and back the batters," said Pandey ahead of the final ODI in Worcester.
"So, I wouldn't say that just that one department of the game is lagging, it is probably, if we can get all the three (departments) together, and the day we have all the three departments of the game going well for us, we will be doing well.
"I would say together as a team we need to get into a better rhythm," she maintained.
Terming Harmanpreet Kaur and Smirti Mandhana as world-class players , Pandey backed the two batters to come good in the third ODI.
"We all know how good batters they are. It is just one innings that they need to get under the belt and we are all backing them and I am sure in the next few games, or in the next game itself they both will be back and help the team to win the game," she said.
While vice captain Harmanpreet has been inconsistent for a long time now, Smriti has not been able to convert her starts.
According to Pandey, the team members and support staff do speak about their scoring rate and are working on improving it.
"I mean, it is not that it is an alien concept, we still talk about it. I mean, at the very outset, if you actually go to see it is a stat, and it is something that we are working towards.
"We want to be still going ahead and playing fearless brand of cricket and we are working towards it and I am sure this is kind of a build-up to the World Cup next year and in the games ahead, we will have a positive attitude and we will look to score runs for the team to win," she elaborated.
After the annihilation of the first game, Indian bowlers kept the team in the game in the second ODI before the hosts got home safely.
"I think we did pretty well in all the three departments in the second game and we are catching up.
"Considering that it is a multi-format series, going ahead, if we win all the four games...we are not regauging ourselves against them, backing our strengths," added the 32-year-old right-arm medium pacer.
"And we know as a team we are a very good team and when we play to our strengths and we have a good day, we know that we can beat any team in the world."
According to Pandey, skipper Mithali, who missed the second innings of the second ODI due to a neck pain, is doing fine.
"Mithali di is all well and she is being assessed by the medical staff and further news on her will be given by the BCCI," she signed off.
