Time to move on from Harmanpreet and Amol: Diana Edulji

Diana Edulji issued a blunt assessment of the Indian women's team after it failed to qualify for the semifinals of the T20 World Cup in England. Without mincing words, she said it was time for India to move on from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and head coach Amol Muzumdar.

In a stinging critique, the former India captain and BCCI Committee of Administrators member said the players and coaches had become ensconced in a comfort zone. 'Stagnated' was the term she used.

"I think we should look beyond Harman. Though she is my favourite player and I've always supported her, I think we need to move on, at least in T20Is. Let her continue as a player and think about a new captain," Edulji told Cricbuzz. "We should have someone with better ideas, especially in terms of strategy. Also, bowling changes – there's a lot more that goes into captaincy. I think she's stagnated now."

Edulji's critique came on a day when the selection committee retained Harmanpreet as skipper for the Asian Games. Edulji felt an opportunity had been missed. "No, I'm not. I'm not," she declared when asked whether she was comfortable with that call.

"We must look ahead, and this was the right time. Maybe it would have looked like a knee-jerk reaction because we just lost the World Cup, but the time has come to take hard decisions. If you want the team to do well consistently and not just have that one-off victory, it's not right. We really need to take big steps now and arrest the slide."

She did not hold back, pointing out that tough calls are taken in men's cricket – like dropping skipper Suryakumar Yadav – so why not in women's cricket. "If we can take bold decisions in men's cricket, we should take bold decisions in women's cricket as well."

She noted Harmanpreet has been playing a safe game. "If she's playing, she has to play her natural game. She has to go all out, irrespective of the situation. By playing safe, you're still losing. If you play aggressively and lose, it's the same story. So you might as well play aggressively."

She came down heavily on head coach Muzumdar too. "I don't see him being able to produce anything more now than what he has already done. His contribution has been good. But we now need someone who can lift the morale of the team and be a little stricter. What the girls need is someone who can push them out of their comfort zones."

Edulji also questioned selection calls in England. "We played Yastika Bhatia as what? She couldn't come out to bat. She's not a bowler. She's the second wicketkeeper. So it was a wasted position. We could have had someone who might have contributed."

"Nandni Sharma was one of the wicket-taking finds of the WPL and did well again. I don't see why we couldn't continue with her and Kranti Goud."

She was critical of the coach's decision to retire Jemimah Rodrigues before the last over against Australia, even though Rodrigues struggled to accelerate (34 off 28 balls). "That makes no sense. Absolutely no sense," she said. "They have to be taken out of their comfort zone. There's too much of a comfort zone now, where they feel there's nobody behind me. We have to build a strong second string so every player knows someone is waiting for their opportunity."

Edulji said India needed different teams for ODIs and T20Is. "We can't have the same team playing all formats. It's high time we distributed the workload because it's taking a toll on fitness, which is already on the lower side. There are so many players we can train specifically for T20 cricket."

"And then, we should have different coaches and different captains. It's time we moved on from this support staff. It's not giving us results. Yes, we did well in the 50-over format. But that's our game. The 50-over format is our game, not T20 cricket."

She came down heavily on fielding. "I'm surprised there was no proactiveness, especially from the fielding coach. I cannot understand what is happening. He's just not able to lift the team, or the players are simply not interested in fielding." The Indian team dropped 11 catches in the World Cup, the third worst fielding side, with seven players guilty.

"It is sad we could not make it to the semifinals. We have only ourselves to blame, particularly because of our loss to South Africa, with our fielding letting us down completely. Our pace attack is not settled at all. Every game we have a different pacer coming in and going out. We need to give pacers confidence so they can raise their game."

Edulji praised the BCCI for support and exposure but said time has come for tough decisions. "The BCCI needs to be saluted for what it is doing, and the players should respond. You have to win bilateral series as well. You lost to South Africa and then to England. That's not right."

"The same 15 or 16 players keep moving around. That's why I say they have to come out of their comfort zone. Drop a few players – or say they're being rested. This was the ideal time to make changes for the Asian Games. If we win the Asian Games and come back with another medal, the same story will continue."

Meanwhile, Edulji was happy that the Indian women's team has qualified for the Olympics. "I only hope they don't keep this same team all the way till the Olympics," she said, signing off.