"Want another pool of 20-25 players" - Amol Muzumdar plans to create bench strength through WPL

India’s Women’s team head coach Amol Muzumdar has revealed his plans on how to create a pool of 20-25 players from the Women’s Premier League season 2 in order to bolster their dug out and increase bench strength. Muzumdar admitted this while doing commentary in last night’s WPL clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore Women and Gujarat Giants.

Amol Muzumdar specifically emphasized on creating a pool that consists of some seriously talented fast bowlers. He believes that if he is able to solidify India’s bowling unit then the team will get a lot more stronger than it is right now. The Indian women’s team under Harmanpreet Kaur’s captaincy has done decently well but their inability to handle pressure in ICC finals, just like the men’s team has become a major problem.

Emphasis only on fast bowlers for Amol Muzumdar

Amol Muzumdar assumed the role of head coach late last year just ahead of the home series against England and Australia. India emerged victorious in each of the one-off Tests against both teams. However, they faced defeat in all the limited-overs series, with England and Australia securing a 2-1 victory in the T20I series, while Australia dominated the ODIs with a 3-0 win.

The pace attack in the white-ball matches comprised Renuka Singh, Titas Sadhu, and the all-rounders Pooja Vastrakar and Amanjot Kaur. Meghna Singh was also part of the Test squad, although she didn’t feature in any of the games.

India might be experiencing a void in their pace department following the retirement of Jhulan Goswami in 2022. Furthermore, it seems they have opted to move forward without the experienced Shikha Pandey, who returned to T20Is in early 2023 but hasn’t been part of recent fixtures.

“I would want another pool of 20-25 players to create a bench strength for the Indian team. Four fast bowlers played the last series, I want to create a pool of fast bowlers from the WPL. It makes a lot of difference if you strengthen the bowling attack,” Muzumdar said via Jio Cinema. 

Muzumdar highlights Indian cricket’s depth by using examples of Sajeevan Sajana and Satheesh Shubha

Amol Muzumdar went on to highlight the depth and treasury that the Indian Women’s team has by using the examples of untouched talent Sajeevan Sajana and Satheesh Shubha. Sajana made the headlines with her final ball six against Delhi Capitals to hand Mumbai Indians Women’s victory in the opening WPL match.

Whereas Satheesh Shubha who plays for RCB, made her India debut through the one-off Test match against England last year. Muzumdar also narrated a story as to how he spotted Satheesh Shubha during a 4-day warm up game in NCA, Bengaluru and also thanked Harmanpreet for agreeing to call up Shubha.

“Sajana’s six gives you an idea of the depth in Indian cricket. I organized a match at the NCA here at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. It was a four-day warm-up match and she (Shubha) did very well there – she scored 99 and 50. She’s a left-hander and bats well at No. 3. After seeing her in the nets I had decided to bat her at No. 3. Not many players had seen her at the time. “I’ll thank Harman because she agreed for the call immediately,” Amol Muzumdar concluded.