[Exclusive] 'Format allows you to be slightly under par at times' - Sanjay Bangar on India women's fielding woes

Indian women suffered a disappointing 58-run loss to New Zealand women in the fourth match of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024. India's former men's batting coach Sanjay Bangar opened up on the challenges faced by the team. Bangar spoke about the tricky nature of T20 cricket and the subpar fielding standards of the Women in Blue.

The recent match against New Zealand exposed India's fielding deficiencies, a problem that has persisted since long. Despite rigorous training at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) before the T20 World Cup, the Indian fielders appeared to miss a lot of opportunities which cost them in the end. Bangar, answering CricTracker's query on Star Sports Press Room, mentioned the difficulty of maintaining dominance in T20 cricket.

"See, [we] have to understand that World Cup wins are far in between. So you won't find a team in World Cup events, in multi-team events, wherein one team is dominating all the time. And more so, it is this particular format [T20s]. If it was a 50-over format, you can then put a finger. But in a T20 format and that has happened in the best league, that is the IPL, no team has won back-to-back tournaments quite regularly," he said. 

The former coach also spoke about how dominating in the shortest format of the game is difficult as any team can prove to be a better side in their game. He pointed out that even the men's team witness failures but dominating in this format becomes difficult. 

"So is the case with the T20 men's World Cup as well [that no team has dominated consistently]. So the dominance part in a format like T20 is extremely, extremely difficult to achieve. The [T20] format allows to be slightly underpar, but you can punch above the weight and knock out a stronger team. So, that's the beauty of this format and that's why watching T20 cricket is so interesting and so intense because you know that any team can beat anybody on its day," Bangar added.

Also Read: Women's T20WC 2024: India's fielding coach lift's team morale after New Zealand loss in tournament opener

The match against the White Ferns saw multiple missed catching opportunities, particularly during the powerplay, including Richa Ghosh's fumble of a top-edged catch off Suzie Bates' bat and Renuka's misfielding, allowing a boundary.

Sophie Devine's unbeaten 57 off 36 balls, helped the Kiwis post a total of 160/4. In reply, India's batting lineup crumbled under pressure, managing only 102 runs in 19 overs.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will put the recent defeat behind them and focus on their next game against arch-rivals Pakistan Women at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai on October 6.