Women's World Cup 2025: Jemimah Rodrigues Highlights India’s Batting Depth Ahead of South Africa Clash

In the first two matches of the Women's World Cup 2025, India's renowned top order has struggled. Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal, the immensely successful opening duo, have only scored 14 and 48 runs, respectively, against underdogs like Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur, for example, have not taken off right away. But in both games, the Women in Blue have been saved by their middle and lower order hitters.

Regarding technological modifications, Jemimah clarified that she discovered a weakness in her pre-delivery regimen approximately four years ago. Her timing was hindered, and her ability to connect with the ball was hampered by the excessive motions she was making before the ball was bowled. She has now put a lot of effort into getting rid of extra movement and establishing a steadier and reliable posture.

Jemimah Rodrigues on Women's World Cup 2025:

🗣 "𝐖𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐞𝐭"

~ Jemimah Rodrigues says India's form should worry the opposition.🏏#CricketTwitter#CWC25pic.twitter.com/HAzqXYcFDH

— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 9, 2025

Additionally, she adjusts her stance based on the pitch conditions, keeping her feet around shoulder-width apart on surfaces with standard bounce and widening and lowering her stance on pitches with lesser bounce. Her overall batting performance and shot-making have improved as a result of these feel-driven changes, which have also helped her improve her balance and timing.

It could be risky to rely too much on the lower-order batsmen to bring India back to life on Thursday, October 9, when they play a formidable team like South Africa at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Although the seasoned Jemimah Rodriguesbelieves that India's batting depth is a strong suit, she acknowledged that the top-order batsmen will need to come up soon.

The cricketer said, "I think if you have seen all the matches till now, our opening partnership has been the highest. Pratika and Smriti, so far in women's cricket, have crossed 1000 runs as a pair. So, if you talk to me, the opponent team will know that we have batting till the end. So, maybe one doesn't click, the other will be taking the responsibility, like Amanjot (Kaur) took that time, Deepti Sharma took, and in the last match we had Richa (Ghosh)."

She further added, "In the first match, the ball was too good and I could not do much. In the second match, I had a good partnership, so I didn't see my own score; the team's score was more important. That wicket (Colombo) was challenging, so we took our time and laid a foundation for the rest of the team, so we could reach 250. So, I am not thinking much about myself; my only approach is that I want to do whatever it takes for the team and if I do that, and my mindset is right. I know performance will follow, but I want to make sure I do my job for the team first."

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