India women's head coach Amol Muzumdar highlighted the Test wins against England and Australia as the ‘highest point’ in a challenging season.
Despite losing seven of nine white-ball games, Muzumdar defended skipper Harmanpreet Kaur's form, emphasising the team's success in Test cricket after a nine-year hiatus.
India lost the T20I series to England 1-2 before going down to Australia 0-3 and 1-2 in ODIs and T20Is respectively, but they excelled in the longest format, winning the one-off Tests against the two sided by big margins.
"The biggest positive is the girls have responded really nicely in all the formats. Whether it was Test cricket — we played Test cricket after nine years in India — not many had played red-ball cricket till then.
Those two Test matches were the highest point," Muzumdar said during a media interaction at DY Patil Stadium after India lost the third and final T20I to Australia by seven wickets on Tuesday.
Having taken charge of the team shortly before the start of the home season, Muzumdar conceded Indian players need to work on their fitness and fielding, which was exposed in the white-ball matches.
"We really need to, as I said earlier, focus on our fielding and our fitness. Hopefully, in the following months, I will get a chance to work on it," he said.
"Those are some areas where we have identified as a group that we need to raise the bar," he said.
Muzumdar added that India also needs to work on its decision-making skills as well as DRS calls.
"It's just that we need to get used to it and we need to get better at it. With the (upcoming WPL) games, even if they (players) get used to taking it in the WPL, probably we might have a better understanding of the DRS," he said.
"At the moment, that's one area where I've said before the series that it could be a game-changer, and I still maintain that. But we need to work on that,” he added.
The head coach added he was happy with the way the squad managed 11 matches across formats in 35 days against two opponents.
"It is quite a credit to all the girls who had a gruelling season. It was tough. We were playing England and we played Australia back-to-back and in different formats. I'm really happy that we've seen through the season."
"Not many, only Shubha Satheesh... that (injury) also happened on the day of the game and it was a finger injury. Really happy with the kind of work that has been put in throughout the season," he added.
He said constant monitoring of players' fitness was crucial to avoiding injuries and health issues.
"We monitored everyone every alternate day. We kept a thorough check on what was happening with all the players, including the substitutes who were not playing."
Muzumdar did not agree that Harmanpreet was out of form. "I wouldn't say (she is out of form) across formats. In Test matches, she got a 49 and then 44 not out. In the T20Is, it happens to every cricketer. She's been a great player for India. I'm sure you'll see some bright performances in the near future,” he added.
