Last time runners-up Bengal exit from the group stage, question raises on the team management

From being a contender for the Senior Women's T20 Trophy to exiting from the group phase, Bengal has faced tough times in the last one week or so. Though they have beaten Harmanpreet Kaur's Punjab with ease, the tournament has not been that great for them. After the early exit, the team management might face some serious questions from the fans of Bengal cricket.

Cricket Association of Bengal had everything covered for the team for the preparation of the tournament. They played a few practice matches in the day time at Kalyani. Then, they played a few day-night matches to get themselves ready for the evening matches at the tournament. Moroever, the girls also played Byju's Bengal Women's T20 Blast followed by inter-district T20 Tourament.

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Bengal was one of the favourites to clinch the trophy after being runners-up in the last edition of the tournament. The Bengal team was led by the veteran Indian cricketer Rumeli Dhar in the absence of Jhulan Goswami. They were first defeated by Jemimah Rodrigues' Mumbai but followed up with two wins against Saurashtra and Assam.

However, whenever they came up against a better side, they failed to perform. Bengal's loss against Haryana would mean they were about to face an early exit from the tournament. Shafali Verma helped that it with a blistering fifty.

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Now, there are many questions that the team management might have to answer after returning back home.

Rumeli Dhar's performance as an all-rounder and leader will be under scrutiny after the tournament. The senior veteran was not able to do much with the bat and ball, except in the Punjab match. There were some questions about her leadership skills as well during the tournament.

Dhara Gujjar, who was one of the shining stars of the Bengal team in last year's one-day tournament, was underutilized. Dhara was said to be one of the players to watch out for in the tournament. Meanwhile, senior left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana failed to perform as well as per the expectations.

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There was some lack of planning from the Bengal team as batter Parna Paul was not given a chance to bat against Haryana in a must-win match. Though Bengal had lost 7 wickets Parna was not sent to bat. Even opener Mita Paul was not sent to bat as well. However, there were some reports that Mita had an injury on her hands during bowling. Interestingly Mita bowled the full quota of four overs in the second inning.

With the striking ability of Richa Ghosh, Bengal could have gone with her as an opener in the Haryana match also. Richa scored 75 runs off 52 balls opening the inning against Punjab in the next match. If they could have done that in the must-win match against Haryana, things could have been different for them.

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None of the Bengal bowlers was clinical when the chips were down. Only Titas Sadhu comes on the list of bowlers with the most wickets in the tournament after the group stage. Titas took 7 wickets with an economy of 3.50 and was exceptional against Shafali Verma's Haryana when all the bowlers were taken apart.

In the batting department, Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh were the hopes of Bengal. However, except for her fifty against Punjab, Richa did not look at her best. Meanwhile, Deepti's strike rate of 99.28 at the top of the order, was a cause of worry for the Bengal team as well.

As the team comes home, it will be interesting to see if there will be changes in the team management. Moreover, it will be interesting to see what answer the team management gives when CAB ask the same questions the fans are asking now.