Veteran Mithali Raj called for India’s lower-order to make more important contributions, and the need for the team to fine-tune their skills overall in the Twenty20 format, especially with the World T20 coming up later in the year.

Raj, though, acknowledged how the team has improved by leaps and bounds since she started out, and has several match-winners now. “I have always felt that the team should not be dependent on one player. A team needs to have at least four-five of them who are match-winners. I can see that we have developed that in our team now,” Raj told in a bcci.tv in an interview.

Raj, opener Smriti Mandhana and T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur have been the pillars of the batting order, and their consistent run of scores may have masked the brittle nature of the lower middle-order and the tail.

In the third T20I in Johannesburg, which India lost to hosts South Africa, the last five wickets fell in the space of just 14 balls: “What needs work on is the lower-order to contribute with the bat. It is not that the [top-order] batters will score the runs in every game. Yes, the top-order needs to score a bulk of the runs but sometimes, the tail needs to contribute more.”

Raj also praised the top-order who have got India off to blazing starts in each of the three T20s against the Proteas. “We have very good batters for the T20 format. Harman and Veda [Krishnamurthy] can clear the fence. And Smriti has been consistently scoring runs in both formats,” she added.

One of India’s major strength is the spinners. Poonam Yadav and the rest have delivered consistent performances, stifling the opposition in the middle-overs. Raj said that the slow bowlers could have their task cut out in West Indies later in the year: “Spinners have a lot of work as the wickets are conducive for high-scoring contests. The team is in the the mould of preparing for the T20 World Cup,” the 35-year-old said.

Need to have experience and youth

A slew of fresh faces were added to the Indian squad for this tour – Pooja Vastrakar, Jemimah Rodrigues and Taniya Bhatia – and the 35-year-old welcomed the move, calling for the need of a good mix of players, cutting across age groups, “Youngsters make the dressing room atmosphere lively – experience matters but you need young blood in the squad. Raw talent also helps.”

With a lot of interest generated among cricket aficionados in the country following her side’s dream run in the 2017 World Cup, Raj urged the rest of them to raise the bar, “Since the matches are televised or live streamed, it matters what the kind of standards you set, especially in terms of fielding. It is important every player turn their thoughts more professional.”

India face tougher opponents later in the year “After South Africa, we play Australia and England, who are quality opponents. They have a lot of quality players in their side. Having done well, playing them [Australia and England] is an exciting challenge. It is important that I continue to score runs for the team,” she said.

Watch the full interview here