'India hungry to win some tournaments' - Amol Muzumdar

In light of India's recent elimination from the T20 World Cup without reaching the semifinals, head coach Amol Muzumdar sees "huge scope" for improvement. He stated that they are "hungry" to win, want them to play "aggressive" cricket, and "set the tone for the next six months," which include three multi-nation T20 tournaments: the Asia Cup, which is currently taking place in Dubai, the Asian Games, which will take place in Japan the following month, and the Champions Trophy, which will be held in Sri Lanka in February.

A day before India's opening game in the Asia Cup, against Thailand, Muzumdar was particularly probed about India's T20I run this year in which they have won just seven games out of 16, a win-loss ratio of 0.77, only better than that of West Indies, Netherlands and Pakistan among the teams that featured in the last T20 World Cup.

Muzumdar stated, "We don't pay too much attention to the form that you are talking about." "But at the same time, we know what scope of improvement this team has got. There is a great deal of room for improvement. This side is young. If you look at it, I believe we are attempting to play good, aggressive cricket. And from here on, we will try and set the tone for the next six months.

"This group has been a special one. There can be no doubt about that. We have done well in the ODI set-up. In the Test matches we've played, we've done well. We have won four of the last five Test matches. They want to be successful. They are hungry for winning some tournaments. Every tournament matters. Every tournament is crucial for this set-up. This group of players really wants to succeed. That would be evident in the not-too-distant future."

India lost their matches at the T20 World Cup in the United Kingdom in June because of poor fielding, collapses in the middle order, constant chopping and changing of the side, and the inability of their fast bowling unit to pick wickets. This exposed a number of India's strategies. Muzumdar said the team held a camp in Bengaluru recently where they worked hard on their fitness and fielding standards, and now it was about executing their plans.

"We had a fantastic camp at the Centre of Excellence," he said. "A 15-day camp that the Strength and Conditioning (S&C) staff well managed. We put a lot of effort into our fitness. We put in a lot of effort as well when it came to fielding. As I said, there is some scope of improvement. We are making an effort to pay the utmost attention to specific game elements' minute details. We focused on that in that camp. As far as I am concerned, as a coach, I was really happy with the camp and the results of the camp. The preparation has been good. It is just about going out there and executing our plans."

India have been plagued with injuries to some of their first-choice players such as Pooja Vastrakar, Amanjot Kaur, Kashvee Gautam, Shreyanka Patil during the World Cup, and most recently Jemimah Rodrigues, who hurt her hamstring during the Hundred in the UK and has been ruled out of the Asia Cup and the Asian Games. The selectors named the uncapped Pratika Rawal as her replacement but Muzumdar didn't reveal who would bat at Rodrigues' No. 3 position on Sunday, saying "we haven't discussed about the 11".

"Look, speaking about Jemimah, I have always maintained that she is a clutch player for us," Muzumdar said. She will be greatly missed. But then, having said that, her recovery is very important for us. Her rehab is well taken care of at the Centre of Excellence in Bangalore. Yes, she will be missed, but the team has added a few new players who I am confident will succeed. Having said that, we will miss Jemimah."