India’s women’s cricket team faced a tough defeat against South Africa in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 match in Visakhapatnam. This loss made it clear that there are some main problems in the team that need quick fixing. South Africa won by three wickets and showed how India’s batting struggles are becoming serious.
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| Image Source: NDTVSports |
In the last three matches, India’s top batters have kept failing at the start. Every time, the team got a decent beginning but then lost many wickets close together. Against Sri Lanka, India went from 81 for 1 to 124 for 6. In the Pakistan match, they dropped from 67 for 1 to 159 for 5. South Africa continued this pattern, with India collapsing from 83 for 1 to 102 for 6. These repeated stumbles have made India’s strong batting line-up look weak against tough teams.
Players like Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Jemimah Rodrigues have not scored enough runs. Pratika Rawal has only made 105 runs in three games, and Mandhana managed 54. Harmanpreet scored just 49, while Rodrigues scored 32 and got out without scoring in two matches. Rodrigues also keeps getting out against left-arm spinners, which is now a regular problem.
India’s batters have also failed to score quickly. Richa Ghosh has the team’s best strike rate at 127.18, but others have low numbers. Harleen Deol has 107 runs with a strike rate of 70.39, while Rawal’s is even lower at 69.07. Harmanpreet and Mandhana have strike rates below 80. The team played more than 100 dot balls in every game and over 180 against South Africa, which means they are not rotating strike or hitting enough boundaries.
Left-arm spin bowlers have hurt India in every match so far. Inoka Ranaweera from Sri Lanka took important wickets in Guwahati, breaking through the batting order quickly. Against Pakistan, Sadia Iqbal bowled tightly and took Rawal’s wicket with a tricky delivery. During the Vizag match, South Africa’s Nonkululeko Mlaba got Smriti Mandhana out and later dismissed Harleen Deol. Chloe Tryon also used left-arm spin to take three big wickets in India’s line-up.
The captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, admitted after the loss that the top-order batters need to take more responsibility and score better. Richa Ghosh, a middle-order player, said that everyone is trying their best and one bad match does not define a good batter. She also pointed out an important over from Kranti that changed the momentum of the game.
India has barely managed to win earlier games against Sri Lanka and Pakistan even with similar problems. The next matches will be against Australia and England, teams that have excellent left-arm spinners. India’s team must fix these issues soon, or they might face more losses and risk dropping out of the tournament. The team’s ongoing troubles with collapses, slow batting, and a weakness against left-arm spinners are now very clear as the World Cup continues