Commonwealth Games 2022: SWOT Analysis of Indian Women’s Cricket Team

The 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games is all set to begin on July 28 in Birmingham, and for the first time in history, it will have a dedicated competition for women cricketers. Women’s cricket will be making its debut at the global event, and eight teams will compete against each other to bag the gold, silver, and bronze medals. A total of 16 games will be played across 10 days in the T20 format.

The Indian team, led by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, will be gearing up in order to make it big on the global platform. India are yet to win an ICC tournament, and a Gold medal at the CWG 2022 would change the course of the team in the world of cricket. India have been longing for making a big impact on the global stage. They ended runners-up in the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 and 2017 ODI World Cup, but are yet to grab the top spot.

The Women in Blue will be getting many opportunities, but at the same time, they’ll also be facing some obstacles, because the journey is never so simple. Thus, let us have a look at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that the Indian team would look up to ahead of their opening game.

SWOT Analysis of Team India for Commonwealth Games

Strength-

The Indian team’s biggest strength would be their skipper – Harmanpreet Kaur. She is now India’s all-formats captain as Mithali Raj announced her retirement from international cricket. Kaur has been in terrific form with the bat and will be a key behind India’s run at the CWG. Her recent captaincy stint has been successful, as she led the team to an ODI and a T20I series win against Sri Lanka.

She possesses the hunger to achieve more and more. That is what drives her into giving her best in the games. Kaur has been a crucial component of the Indian setup ever since she joined. Her leadership style, her passion, and her form with both the bat and the ball are the elements that will prove beneficial for India.

Weakness-

India’s biggest weakness is their consistency. There haven’t been many cases where the players have put up consistent performances. Their fielding had been a concern for a long time, but it improved when they played against Sri Lanka. But India have always faced problems in the middle overs, be it with the bat or with the ball.

The batters struggle to pile up runs in the middle overs. The batting unit comes crashing down if they lose a couple of wickets, and India’s tryst with collapses is known to all. On the other hand, the bowlers tend to make mistakes in the middle overs and give away bonus runs. India will have to focus on their wicket-taking abilities during these middle-overs, which will help them to storm into the opposition’s lineup and make a bigger impact.

Opportunity-

Not just India, but all the eight teams fighting in the competition will have an opportunity to make a podium finish at the CWG. In the case of championship tournaments, or any ICC events, there’s just one trophy and just one winner who bags the honour. Here, the team would not have the fear of losing, as they have three medals up for grabs.

Though every team will be eyeing the Gold medal, even if they fail to claim that, they’ll still have opportunities to claim the silver and bronze medals and make their place on the podium. But that would not mean that India would lose hope. Because they’re yet to win any championship at such global events, that drive to make it big would be their biggest opportunity ahead of them.

Threat-

The biggest threat that India would face at the CWG 2022 would be the contest against their arch-rivals England and Australia. While the former ended India’s hopes of winning their maiden ODI World Cup in 2017, the latter denied the Women in Blue from lifting their maiden T20 World Cup in 2020. Ever since then, whenever India have clashed against England and Australia, it has been a fight worth watching.

India have previously shown some dominant performances against the two rivals, who are currently in great form, thanks to their recent victories in the white-ball format. India’s biggest threat would be these two teams – the finalists of this year’s World Cup – and the Women in Blue will have to come up with a strong strategy to tackle them.