India’s 0-3 loss to Australia in the ICC Women’s Championship series was disappointing to many fans who were watching Mithali Raj and Co play at home for the first time since their run to the World Cup final eight month ago.

However, it was not entirely unexpected.

Despite India’s remarkable win over them in the World Cup semi-final, Australia have not only been one of the dominant sides in women’s cricket, but also a supremely consistent one, churning out match winners at every step.

And a large part of the credit goes to the domestic system they have in place, with the Women’s Big Bash League for the last three years taking women’s game in the country far ahead of the curve.

It is this aspect – a strong domestic system and a pool of backup players – that India needs to work a lot more on. Right now, if one key player in the core group of 15-17 player gets injured or performs poorly, there are very little options for replacements that can match up.

Take the case of Jhulan Goswami, who was injured in South Africa and missed the T20I series there as well as part of the ODI series. In her absence, 18-year-old Pooja Vastrakar took the new ball with Shikha Pandey, and while she clearly is a talented pacer, she lacked the control of the 34-year-old veteran. The only other pacer in the squad was Sukanya Parida, who has played one ODI before. India’s backup pacer Mansi Joshi, who was there the World Cup, was also recovering from injury, while veteran Rumeli Dhar was brought in only for the T20Is.

This lack of bench strength is something that ODI captain Raj pointed out as well in her interaction with the media on Tuesday. With the BCCI now beginning to focus on developing the domestic structure for the women’s game, she said that it will take at least two more years for India to have a good pool of international-standard players.

“We have just started with India A tours and formation of an A team last year after we came back from the World Cup. It will take some time, at least a couple of years to get our second string in place,” Raj said.

“We do have some young talented players, but they need that exposure. So I am sure in a year or two, we will have a better quality of players playing India A,” the 35-year-old added.

Currently, the India A team has been in a rough patch, being thrashed by the visiting Australian and England teams in the warm-up games. They lost to Australia by 321 runs and seven wickets in the 50-over games and to England by 45 runs in the first and were dismissed for 85 in the second with the English debutants shining with a hat-trick and a half-century.

However, Raj also stressed on the need to keep investing in youngsters, singling out the teens who made their debut in South Africa.

“We have Jemimah Rodrigues, Pooja, Taniya Bhatia, we have five-six of those young girls who have got into the ODI and T20 series in South Africa, so we need to invest in them,” she said.

The BCCI has already set up a committee to review the loss and look at the way ahead, including a national camp for the backup players.

Raj was also of the opinion that the current domestic structure was nowhere near suitable for a full-fledged women’s IPL

“You can feed in any domestic players but then there will be a stark difference between an international player and domestic player. It might go against promoting women’s cricket. So, I personally believe that when you have strong domestic set-up and churning quality players then giving them an opportunity in IPL makes sense,” she said.

Lessons from Australia loss

But bench strength is not the only big lesson from the performance against Australia. With batting collapses in three matches, Raj stressed on the need for partnerships in the middle order.

“We lagged behind in having partnerships in the middle-order that we had in South Africa tour. Our middle-order did not click in the ODIs, the bowlers weren’t as disciplined as they were in South Africa tour. Things did not go our way,” she assessed.

“Their batting was very good, whoever came in was able to score runs. Our bowlers needs to work more on the plans that we decide and try to implement them. When you play a very good side, you don’t have the cushioning for even the smallest of small errors. You have to be spot on to win,” the captain said in all straightforwardness.

The challenge now gets harder for India, with this Australian team, along with world champions England, up next, albeit in a different format.

With the T20I tri-series starting on Thursday, India will have a lot of work to do to iron out the chinks, for the short-term at least. To beat teams like England and Australia consistently, it might take a couple of years as Raj said.

But with returning Goswami and the fresh blood that the team introduced in South Africa, India are sure to do better in the shorter format at home. The onus will be on Harmanpreet Kaur and Co to ensure the big home series to prepare for the standalone World Twenty20 later this year is a productive learning curve.