India vs Australia Women's T20I: 5 things to know as the 5-match series kicks off in Mumbai

Indian cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Starting with this series, centrally contracted women cricketers in India will be paid the same match fee as their male counterparts for international appearances: INR 15 lakh for Test, INR 6 lakh for ODIs and INR 3 lakh for T20Is.(Image source: BCCI via Twitter/ImHarmanpreet)

India take on world champions and Commonwealth Games gold medallists Australia on home soil starting December 9 in Mumbai. Moneycontrol.com highlights the major talking points around the hosts as the five-T20I series, the first encounter between the two sides since the Commonwealth Games final at Edgbaston earlier this year, kicks off.

Coach Powar exits; captain Kaur refutes role in ouster

Three days out from the start of the series, and hours after the 15-member Indian squad had assembled in Mumbai, came a bolt from the blue.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in an uncharacteristically detailed press release, announced on Tuesday afternoon that Ramesh Powar, under whom India won a silver medal at the inaugural Commonwealth Games, in Birmingham in July-August and lifted the Asia Cup in October, will no longer be India Women’s head coach. Instead, he will now assume duties specific to men’s cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru as part of a "restructuring module".

The press release also made clear that former India all-rounder Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who had previously worked with the women’s team on the tour of Sri Lanka in July as a batting coach, has been appointed in the same role. With no head coach named for the Australia series, Kanitkar along with Shubhadeep Ghosh, who’s been India’s fielding coach for over a year now, have been overseeing practice sessions for team India across the Cricket Club of India, in Mumbai, and the DY Patil Stadium, in Navi Mumbai, the two venues for the five-match series.

Asked if reports of Powar’s sacking was down to her displeasure over his coaching methodology, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on the eve of the tournament opener said, "Well, nothing of that kind at all. I have always enjoyed working with Ramesh sir whenever I have had the opportunity. As a team, we have improved a lot (under him). We have learned a lot from him. It's a BCCI decision that he has moved to the NCA now, where he will work as the spin coach.

“Hrishi sir is here with us. We had a very good experience with him when we were in Sri Lanka. Whenever we were at the NCA, he was always available. Hrishi sir brings in a lot of experience for the team and we're only looking forward to how to take this team ahead. I think we are in (the) right hands. Whatever decision the BCCI is taking, we're fully okay with that."

The curious case of Rana, Pandey

The black hole that is communication and clarity around selection calls regarding India Women sucked more players into its limitless vastness ahead of the Australia series. Take spin-bowling all-rounder Sneh Rana. She had done little to warrant an axing from the squad, having played a substantial hand in India’s commendable performances at the Commonwealth Games and the Asia Cup.

Yet, Kaur appeared to suggest otherwise on Thursday. “Selection,” she said, “is always dependent on performances. Whoever has performed, is in the side. For Sneh Rana and all, they are definitely good players and in upcoming tournaments, whenever they do well, they will come back…”

Besides Rana, D. Hemalatha and Kiran Navgire, too, are understood to have been dropped – no official word has been put on the reason behind their non-selection – while senior pacer Shikha Pandey, who last played for India during the tour of Australia in September-October 2021, remains out of the reckoning despite formidable performances in the ongoing domestic season.

The current panel of India Women’s selectors haven’t appeared in any press conferences since their appointment in late-2020 – by contrast, selectors of the men’s team routinely do – but the predominant sentiment amongst them is understood to be that Pandey doesn’t figure in the selection committee’s scheme of things, at present or for the near future. The powers that be at Indian women’s cricket are, instead, looking to younger talent, with a view to “moving forward, instead of going back”.

Uncapped Sarvani, returning Vaidya’s chance to shine

That Pandey was overlooked yet again, a somewhat harsh call given her caliber, experience as a swing bowler, recent performances on the domestic circuit and knack for troubling the Australian line-up, is in part also down to the emergence of Railways left-arm pacer Anjali Sarwani.

She was the leading wicket-taker in the Inter-State Women's T20s, with 17 wickets at an average of 5.70 and an economy rate of 3.34, and the joint-leading wicket-taker in the Inter-Zonal T20s, with 10 wickets at 10.80 and 4.50. With pace-bowling all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar missing the Australia series through injury, fewer chances might be as opportune for Sarvani to show just how effective, rare as the breed of left-arm quicks is in women’s cricket in India, she can be at the international level.

The opportunity to grab the spotlight also beckons leg-spin bowling all-rounder Devika Vaidya, who, on the back of impressive domestic showings, returns to the national squad eight years after she played her only T20I. She will fight for a spot in the XI with the more favoured Harleen Deol, who, too, returns to the T20I mix after being dropped from the Asia Cup squad.

Equal match-fee policy takes effect

The delay in floating the tender document for the inaugural Women’s Indian Premier League, tentatively scheduled for March 2023, might not inspire confidence of the ideal kind among fans or stakeholders of Indian cricket, but the Australia series brings with it a major drawcard for the women’s game in the country.

The home series would be India’s first assignment since the BCCI announced in late October that centrally contracted women cricketers in India will be paid the same match fee as their male counterparts for international appearances: Rs 15 lakh for Test, Rs 6 lakh for ODIs and Rs 3 lakh for T20Is.

A centrally contracted playing XI member of the Indian team will, therefore, take home thrice the amount for each of the five T20Is matches in the series than they would have under the previous match-fee structure, last followed during the Asia Cup. Beyond tangible gains, the introduction of the policy could be far-reaching, said Kaur on Thursday during a media interaction at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.

“This was the first step, and I am sure, going forward, there will be a lot of good news for women’s cricket. For that, we have to take a lot of responsibility as a team and play good cricket. We have been reaching finals but could not lift the major titles,” Kaur said. “But still, the way we are playing has changed a lot of things in the country.

“I am sure the BCCI must be thinking about (equal pay) in domestic cricket as well. Domestic cricket is very important. Now, the Women’s IPL is coming, and all those things will be important for domestic cricketers. There is money involved, and with that we will get a lot of good domestic matches. Things will come to you. We just need to perform.”