Struggling Indian batters need to find a way to play on a slow surface as they face Bangladesh in the second women’s ODI here on Wednesday. India must win this game in order to avoid an embarrassing series defeat.

Spinners, especially leg-break bowlers, have troubled Indians in the ongoing tour and on Sunday, they even found pacer Marufa Akter hard to negotiate as the fancied team suffered its first-ever loss to Bangladesh in ODIs.

The performance of star batter Smriti Mandhana, who turned 27 on Monday, has been a big disappointment so far. It has been quite some time since Mandhana scored a fifty, forget making a significant contribution with the bat.

Without doubt, India would hope their leading batter comes up with an impact-making knock that could go on to help in keeping them alive in this ODI series.

Priya Punia, replacing Shafali Verma for the ODI series opener, also struggled in her comeback. Both Yastika Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues have struggledto rotate strike and that has put them under extra pressure.

In the absence of keeper-batter Richa Ghosh, no one has stepped up for the finisher’s role with the team struggling to find boundaries.

However, Amanjot Kaur, who bowled well on Sunday, has a good opportunity to make an impact with the bat as well and give India a much-needed option when it comes to finishing.

Bowling coach Rajib Datta feels there is no need to press the panic button.

“There is no need to be disappointed. The team could not execute its plans the way it wanted to.

“It is a team in transition phase and looking at combinations for the World Cup next year,” he said.

India bowled 19 wides in the series opener and that should be a big area of concern. “Extras are an issue. The girls are playing after four months. So it’s not that big an issue. We will rectify that,” added Datta.

India have a World Cup to play in Bangladesh next year and they need to learn how to score runs on pitches where the ball doesn’t come on to the bat too well.

Match starts: 9 am (IST)

Written with PTI inputs