da lvbet： With Yastika Bhatia, D Hemalatha, Priya Punia and Richa Ghosh all in the mix, it might just be a good headache for the team to have

da pinnacle： Srinidhi Ramanujam24-Jun-2024Who really is India’s No.3 in ODIs?At the moment, they may not have zeroed in on this key position with one year remaining for the home World Cup.Until Amol Muzumdar took over the reins as India’s head coach in October 2023, Yastika Bhatia was the No.3 since the start of the Women’s Championship cycle 2022-25. But things have changed since last year.In this cycle, India have tried four players at this position, with D Hemalatha and Priya Punia their latest experiments, in the recently concluded series against South Africa at home.Related

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This was after Muzumdar, in his first assignment with the women’s national team, rejigged the batting line-up and sent in Richa Ghosh – predominantly a finisher in both ODIs and T20Is – at No.3 against Australia at home, last December. It seemed the move wouldn’t be a short-term experiment after Muzumdar had clarified “that’s the best spot for her” and “we believe that she can be a good top-order player.” During that series, which was not part of the Championship, the left-handed Yastika opened the batting in all three games and Shafali Verma was dropped after the first ODI due to her poor run of scores in this format.Fast forward to June 2024. Six months later, or in other words, in India’s next ODI assignment, when India lined up for the national anthem on June 16 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Ghosh was not padded up and that added to the element of intrigue. Yastika was ruled out due to a niggle that she had suffered during the Bangladesh series. Following Shafali’s dismissal after 20 balls, Hemalatha, who had come back into the ODI set-up after convincing performances at the WPL and then during the T20I tour of Bangladesh, walked in.”The brilliant thing with Richa is that she can adapt to any situation and play. We saw what she did at No.3. I am not ruling out [the possibility of] her at No.3,” India vice-captain Mandhana explained the decision after the first ODI.”But the way Hema was batting in the Bangladesh series, and the nets and wherever we saw, she always looked good. She had a brilliant domestic season, so also [in] the WPL, she was pretty good. The best thing about our middle order is that they can adapt and play according to the situation, which is great. I am not saying Richa won’t be [our] no.3, it depends on who fits best at what place. We are all ready to do whatever is needed for the team. There are no complaints about batting at a certain position, everyone’s really happy. In the end, we want to get the win for India.”Hemalatha had not batted in this position in ODIs before the series opener. All of her previous five ODI innings had come in the middle order. But playing for Gujarat Giants in WPL 2024 and Railways at the domestic level showed that a strong bottom-handed player Hemalatha could thrive up the order. However, against South Africa, she scored a total of 36 runs in the two games after coming in at 15 for 1 and 38 for 1. The sample size is small here and nothing concrete can be made out of this because in the final ODI, when the series had already been sealed 2-0, India decided to give Priya Punia a chance at No.3.Before Sunday, Priya Punia last played an international game in July 2023•BCCIPerhaps a little confusing? Maybe.Punia made her ODI debut in 2019, and played nine matches as an opener in the next four years and scored 242 runs, including two half-centuries. Her last international game before Sunday came against Bangladesh in Mirpur, in July 2023. But she made her way back into the national setup following excellent domestic performances. Playing for Delhi, she finished as the second-highest run-getter in the senior women’s one-day trophy with 494 runs in eight innings, including one hundred and five half-centuries.On Sunday, Punia showed the intent and skill to score from the word go and stitched a 50-run stand with Mandhana in a small chase of 216. Her three fours and a six to long-on looked solid and confident. But her stay was short-lived as she sliced one to backward point after a 40-ball 28.In all three matches at home, Ghosh played in the middle order, after Harmanpreet and Jemimah Rodrigues, back to her finisher’s role.It can also be noted that India played under four different coaches since the last ODI World Cup in 2022. Their first assignment in this Championship cycle was a tour of Sri Lanka in July 2022. Ramesh Powar was the coach then, and he wanted Yastika at No.3 and even said “we are on the right track as far as batting is concerned.”Then in December 2022, he was abruptly removed as part of BCCI’s “restructuring module” two months ahead of the T20 World Cup in South Africa. Hrishikesh Kanitkar was in the top job in an interim capacity briefly. For India’s third assignment in this cycle, a tour of Bangladesh in July 2023, former India offspinner Nooshin Al Khadeer was named the interim coach and under her too, Yastika batted at no.3. Then came Muzumdar as full-time coach.D Hemalatha has played two matches at No.3 since the 2022 World Cup•BCCIOverall, since the last ODI World Cup in 2022, Yastika has played nine matches at No.3, Ghosh three times, Hemalatha twice and Punia once. India do not know when they will play their next ODI with the immediate focus shifting to the T20 World Cup slated for October in Bangladesh.So what happens when Yastika comes back fit?India were able to have Yastika open with Mandhana when Shafali was dropped after a game in the Australia series. Shafali was provided an opportunity in Bengaluru to get her mojo back with the hope that she would translate the T20 success into the 50-over format. But she didn’t find her feet against South Africa also, accumulating a total of 52 runs in three games.If India are going to persist with Shafali, Yastika has to bat at No.3 to maximise her potential, but that also means Ghosh will go back to being a finisher at No.6. What happens to Hemalatha and Punia then?For Muzumdar, it might just be a good headache to have.