India entered the 12-team tournament with the form of their top order as a concern, but Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma have largely allayed those fears.
Mandhana scored 159 runs in three matches, while Shafali contributed 92, with both batsmen batting at more than 154 and consistently providing quick starts.
However, the inability of the middle order to build on these platforms has emerged as a new concern for the team management.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (SR 109.09), Jemimah Rodrigues (94.11) and Yastika Bhatia (105.88) could not continue the momentum provided by the openers, and their failure to accelerate invariably left a lot to be done for Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma.
After playing three matches each, both Kaur and Rodrigues managed just 11 boundaries between them without hitting a single six. Yastika, meanwhile, has hit just three fours in two innings, numbers that are likely to worry the Indian field going further into the tournament.
On their part, Richa (176.92) and Deepti (159.37) responded well to the challenge, but arriving late in the innings with limited deliveries to face increased the pressure on the duo.
Despite their lopsided batting, India (4 points from 3 matches, Net Run Rate of 2,511) are reaping the benefits of wide-margin wins – by 64 runs against Pakistan and by 95 runs against the Netherlands – as they look to retain second place in Group A.
