Win it to break it!

India’s Deepti Sharma celebrates the wicket of Australian batter Beth Mooney during the second ODI at Wankhede on Saturday. Pic/PTI

The start of a new year brings hope for better performances in any walk of life. The Indian women's cricket team find themselves in a similar situation. Though they dominated the red-ball format in the recent one-off Tests against England and Australia, they are found wanting in the white-ball format.

India lost the T20Is to England 1-2 and are down 0-2 to Australia with the final one to be played today at the Wankhede Stadium. Though the second ODI was closely contested with Australia pipping India by three runs, it turned out to be one where the team dropping fewer catches won. Out of the 11 that were grassed in the match, Australia's count was four.

Rigorous catching session

To set the ball rolling, the first training session of 2024 for Harmanpreet Kaur & Co started with a rigorous catching practice with players split into three sets for close catches, flat throws and the high ones on Monday.

India will hope for not only a change in fortunes as far as the results are concerned - India have lost nine consecutive ODIs at home to Australia dating back to 2007 - but also for an improved effort on the field. Australia, who maintain a 100 per cent success rate in nine bilateral rubbers, have won 42 ODIs and lost 10 in 52 head-to-head clashes.

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And, Kaur will be keen to lead from the front, having only one fifty in five ODIs in 2023 and not a single two-digit score yet in this series.

India all-rounder Deepti Sharma said the team has been showing improvement. The only bowler to take a five-wicket haul in this series (5-38 on Saturday), said on Monday: "In recent times, we have been taking the game deep. Winning or losing is a part of the game. We will try to break their winning streak as soon as possible."

The 26-year-old from Uttar Pradesh said the team will take the positives from the latest defeat: "The positives being that we did well as a bowling unit to restrict Australia and also the batters doing well, building partnerships."

Australia seek a fourth whitewash in India after 1983-84 (4-0), 2011-12 (3-0) and 2017-18 (3-0). Player of the match in the second ODI, Annabel Sutherland (3-47), said: "We'll be putting our best team out there looking to go 3-0 and go to the T20s with the momentum.

‘Keep believing'

On Australia's dominance over India, the 22-year-old medium-pacer said: "It's a testament to the consistency we have played with over the years and the depth across the squad. It also goes down to the quality of domestic cricket. Every player is exposed to different conditions and challenging circumstances so that on the international stage, it's not too big a jump. You've got to learn how to win and keep the belief. The other night, India were on top for a long period of the chase and our group kept that belief and showed we can win from anywhere."