India vs England Women's Cricket: Head coach Amol Muzumder’s journey into the known unknown

The India Women squad for the T20I against England Women includes Harmanpreet Kaur as captain, Smriti Mandhana as vice-captain as well as players with proven track records such as Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Several coaches have tried to make it happen. Some have got India Women close to a T20 or ODI World Cup final, but none has been able to crack the winning recipe yet. Tushar Arothe, Ramesh Powar, W.V. Raman, Hrishikesh Kanitar – they have all given it a go, before being let go. That’s four head coaches in six years alone for the Indian women’s cricket team. And with less than a year to go for the next women’s world event – the 2024 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh – former Mumbai cricketer Amol Muzumder steps into their shoes. His aim is the same as his predecessors’: Help India win their elusive maiden senior women’s world title.

A giant of domestic cricket, with over 11,000 first-class runs in 171 matches, 30 centuries included, amassed through his 21-year playing career, Muzumder has his task cut out in his new role. Not least because his undefined tenure as head coach might also include overseeing the 2025 ODI World Cup at home. So, where does he begin? In a literal sense, with the three-match T20I series at his home ground, the Wankhede Stadium, against England, starting Wednesday (December 6). In a figurative one, with an eye on long-term gains to be made out of ironing long-standing shortcomings of the Indian women’s side.

“Fielding and fitness are of highest priority; there's no compromising fielding and fitness,” Muzumder said on the eve of the series opener in Mumbai. “So that's one and, the second part, I feel, is there will be a lot of camps that will be happening post this series and getting into the next season as well. So, there'll be a lot of cricket that will be played either at the NCA or somewhere or the other. So, I think more exposure and fitness and fielding will be my top priority.

“The fringe players - the new generation coming through - will get equal opportunities. These are the prime things that we will take forward after this series.”

The BCCI officially named Muzumder, 49, the head coach on October 25, 11 days out from the start of his first assignment in the role. He was selected through a screening process conducted by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising former India internationals Sulakshana Naik, Jatin Paranjpee and Ashok Malhotra. A recurring term in the BCCI press release announcing his appointment was “roadmap”. One has already been set into motion, he stressed, to meet the objectives he set out for upping the team’s fitness.

“They (the parameters) have already been set. We've already had some (fitness) tests which were done at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, and they're already in place and we follow it very rigorously and religiously going forward, so there will be a pre-test and three tests in the season.”

As a T20I outfit, India have come a long way in recent years, making the final of the 2020 edition and the semifinal in the 2018 and 2023 iterations. That’s, in part, down to the influx of youngsters into the side who have traded caution for aggression in what had traditionally been, by and large, a side known for their adeptness at accumulation, a trait that underpins their might as an ODI unit.

Echoing a buzzword that became the hallmark of former head coach Powar’s first press conference in that capacity in 2018, and the best part of his eventful coaching tenure(s), too, Muzumder, in his maiden presser, underlined the importance of the all-important “f” word - fearlessness” - with a focus on two young – but experienced – batters, in specific.

"We need to play a certain brand of cricket which we have been known for," he said. "Shafali and Jemimah (Rodrigues) are both very important cogs in the wheel. I would like them to continue what they have been doing. And fearless cricket is something I have always advocated. We would be playing that brand of cricket."

“Well-equipped” and “mentally extremely strong,” he added, is how he perceives the Indian side he’s inheriting in a year they lost a T20 World Cup semifinal to Australia and won a gold at the Asian Games, both under Kanitkar. The inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) also kicked off this year, to a great reception from in-stadia and on-screen audiences no less, a takeaway Muzumder believes puts India in sight of doing what remains unfinished business.

“I think it was a fantastic advertisement for women's cricket … We all saw how many people turned up for the game,” he said. “And I think we are on a cusp of - this is my personal view - hitting big in women's cricket.”

In tangible terms, that would mean anything short of a world title in 2024 and/or 2025 might be another opportunity gone a-begging, as the hurt of 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023 buried in the heads and hearts of captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Co., or Muzumder's predecessors, might bear out.