Felt Bad To See Mithali Raj Sitting In The Dugout: Jhulan Goswami

Veteran India speedster Jhulan Goswami has expressed her disappointment over Mithali Raj not being a part of the team’s playing eleven for the semifinal against England in the ICC Women’s World T20. England thrashed India by 8 wickets to advance to the final.

India entered the game on the back of an impressive showing in the group stage. Harmanpreet Kaur & Co. had won all four of their group games and brushed New Zealand and Australia aside with surprising ease. Their batters managed to post big scores and the spinners played their part admirably too. However, nothing worked for the Women in Blue as England dismantled them to storm into the final of the competition.

One of the reasons behind the loss was the batting failure. At one stage, India were 89 for 2. However, they lost their eight wickets for just 23 runs to fold up for just 112. Well, the team surely missed the experience of Mithali Raj.

The former skipper had sat out India’s last group match against Australia to nurse a knee injury. Prior to that, she had scored fifties in both the games she had batted in. However, the team-management surprisingly decided to drop her for the crucial clash.

Not surprisingly, the decision has drawn widespread criticism.

And Jhulan Goswami is also not impressed with the ball call, admitting that she was surprised to see Mithali Raj excluded from the playing XI.

“The decision was taken by the team management. I am sure they have their reasons, but as an Indian cricket fan I felt bad to see Mithali sitting in the dugout,” the 36-year-old said.

She further said that the failure to holds the nerve in the semifinal cost India the game.

“It’s just one bad day for our girls, and it’s all over. We played good cricket throughout the group stage but failed to hold our nerve in the semifinal,” said Goswami.

“We won the toss and decided to bat but could not make it count. Despite the good start (43 in 6 overs) by Smriti (Mandhana) and Taniya (Bhatia) we crumbled from 89/2 to be bowled out for 112,” she added. “The girls batted well in the warm-up matches as well as group league stage of the WT20 meet, but our batting display against England was shoddy.