India bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi didn’t pay much heed to the team’s batting collapse during its Women’s Asia Cup 2026 opener against Thailand, putting it down to the nature of the shortest format.
The Women in Blue had lost seven wickets for 29 runs, slipping from 108/2 to 137/9.
“We are playing T20s so it’s not that every time we will be executing our plans. There will be times when we will probably not execute the plans as great as we would have wanted to and so there will be a downfall,” Salvi said on Wednesday, ahead of India’s match against Hong Kong.
While Shafali Verma’s 64 had set the foundation for a daunting total before cracks formed, a crucial 15 not out from pacer Kranti Gaud took the side past the 150-run mark.
“But if you see, there was a comeback also. They came back really well (and) stretched the partnership at the end. Those important runs were contributed from the lower-order batters, which probably created that 160 mark and then after that, you saw how they bowled in the game,” the coach added.
Indian bowlers, led by all-rounder Deepti Sharma, skittled out the Thai for just 65 to pull off a 94-run win in the end.
On bowlers’ workload management
Against Thailand, India did not include its pace ace Renuka Singh Thakur. When asked how the management was handling the experienced bowler’s workload ahead of the Asian Games, Salvi said the workload management wasn’t just for her.
“It’s not only about Renuka in particular; it’s about all the bowlers. We are managing their workloads really well,” he said.
“If you see the kind of tournaments that they have gone through, I mean, they have been continuously playing. They are into the main tournaments. Then there are marquee tournaments and there are camps in between. Each bowler has to go through their building-up phase, then maintenance phase. There will (also) be a phase where they are taking a break, focusing on their training aspect. For all the bowlers, there is a definite plan through which they are having those overs under their belts so that they are at that optimum during the tournament,” Salvi added.
Published on Sep 02, 2026
