Fitness, fielding and DRS - Muzumdar on India's areas of concern

In the aftermath of India's 2-1 loss to Australia in the T20I series, captain Harmanpreet Kaur and coach Amol Muzumdar have identified "fitness" and "fielding" as two focus areas for the side.

[In the] last month, we played good cricket. Aussies played white ball better than us," Harmanpreet admitted at the post-match presentations. "In red-ball cricket, we know we have time and to analyse, in white-ball we have to be on our toes. We need to be quick. We will go back and work on certain areas.

"In the first T20, fielding set the tone, we were not up to the mark in the last two. After this break we will work on our fitness and fielding and come back stronger. Youngsters have been great, whenever they are getting opportunities they are going 100 percent. I think we always fight, they also know that. I am proud of my team, they [Australia] are an experienced team and their experienced players play big roles. This is something we need to learn from them."

Muzumdar's assessment during the post-match press conference was pretty similar. "In white-ball cricket, we really need to focus on our fielding and our fitness. And hopefully in the following months, I will get a chance to work on it. Those are some areas we have identified as a group to raise the bar," he said.

The head coach also spoke about India's visible lack of comfort with the DRS. "In areas to look into, let's rephrase that to fielding, fitness and DRS. We need to get used to it, get better at it. With the games forward, even if they get used to taking it in the WPL, we might have a better understanding. I said before the series that it could be a gamechanger and I still maintain that. We need to work on it."

Muzumdar also reflected on playing back-to-back series against England and Australia, a prospect he called "gruelling", and picked the successive Test victories as the ultimate high point of the season so far.

"There were multiple formats in the month and half we played. The biggest positive is that the girls have responded really nicely in all the formats. We played Test cricket after nine years in India and not many had played red-ball cricket till then. So I think those two test matches were really the highest point. It wasn't easy but the results were complete highs," Muzumdar said.

"Credit to the girls, it's been a gruelling season. We played England and Australia back to back, and in different formats. Not many injuries... only Shubha Satheesh happened and that too on the day of the game and it was a finger injury, so I am really happy with the work that's been put in throughout the season. They monitored everyone, every alternate day we kept a thorough check on all the players, what was happening, including with the substitutes who were not playing. We were keeping a thorough eye on the workloads."

The coach reckoned that the team was in good space despite losing the ODI and T20I series to Australia and hoped to continue in the same vein till the upcoming World Cup.

"We had a good chat in the huddle just before this game. We said that irrespective of the result, we should be proud of the way we have played, all the series, all the games. Apart from one, the third ODI, all the other games have been really close. So they should be proud of what they have done. Every single member's effort is appreciated and it includes the support staff also and every player who's come in and gone after the Test matches.

"At the moment, it's a happy dressing room. I know we have not got the result which we have wanted in this series but they are in a happy space and that's how it should be and that's how I intend it to be till the World Cup."