Indian Pacers Were A Bit Wayward In First ODI Says Jhulan Goswami

Indian women team's frontline pacer Jhulan Goswami has attributed the eight-wicket loss to England in the first ODI to lack of game-time. The 38-year-old, who picked one for 25 in her six overs, and fellow pacers, Shikha Pandey and Pooja Vastrakar, failed to make early and regular dents to England women's batting. The spinners were even more disappointing as they gave away runs at over six an over.

"It is just that our bowling unit, particularly medium pacers unit has not fired as it should have, so things look a bit wayward but I'm sure we all have a lot of talent and we are going to come back strongly," said Jhulan to media ahead of Wednesday's second ODI.

The right-arm pace bowler, who has represented India in 187 women's ODIs, said that the bowling group will come back strongly on Wednesday.

"You have to believe in these players, they have the ability. In the past, they have done very well. It is just that they are coming back after a long layoff in international cricket. So they will come back strongly, and as a bowling unit, we will come back strongly," she added.

Jhulan also said that the Indian top and middle-order batters will come good. In the first ODI, only skipper Mithali Raj was able score something of note, making 72. "Well, it is just the first match. The day before yesterday was her [Shafali Varma] debut, you cannot expect so much from her. That's the impact she has had.

"They [Punam Raut, Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur] just need one good knock among them. Then definitely we will be on a great platform. These things happen in cricket."