Former India captain Mithali Raj on Tuesday attributed the national team’s underwhelming performance in the Women’s T20 World Cup to lack of growth across departments over the past three years.

It was the first time under Harmanpreet Kaur’s captaincy that India failed to qualify for the knockouts of an ICC showpiece event.

Mithali said the team’s downfall was a result of not getting used to the conditions in the UAE, lack of role clarity in the batting department, untested bench strength, and below-par fielding.

“If I talk about the Australia game, it was a match to win. I thought at some point we had a chance but it seemed like we are following the same template against Australia. Taking the match deep but falling short eventually. It’s not working,” Mithali said.

“I feel that in the last two-three years, I’ve not really seen any growth in this team, in the sense like, I mean, beating the best side is what you always prepare for but it seems like we are saturated in the sense we are beating other teams and we are pretty happy.

“Every other team has shown growth despite limited depth, a case in point being South Africa. We have not,” the former captain said.

“Surprisingly, we took time to adjust to the slowness of the wicket... Someone like Sophie Devine was able to score that many runs against us and she is not used to playing on slow tracks. We were not quick enough to adjust.”

Mithali felt the planning could have been much better for the World Cup.

“We expect the openers to do well, we always expect Shafali to go big. But things have changed over the years. If both the openers go well, then we always get stuck in middle overs. That has been our story.

“And then we try and make up in the end. The Powerplay and the death overs is where we do well, but in the middle overs, we’ve not found ways to get better.

“I was doing commentary in the Asia Cup. To be very honest, I didn’t know that, what was happening. I’m sure they were aware that Asia Cup is the last series of matches that they’re going to play before the World Cup.

“When you know that this is the last game time that you’re going to have before you enter the big tournament you do at least 70 per cent of your planning or 80 per cent of your planning.

“Like who your number 5 and number 6 is, these are people who would walk in a particular situation. But there it seemed they were playing only for that tournament...”

Mithali is not against a change in captaincy. “If the selectors decide to change, I would go for a young captain. This is the time...”

WI, SA in semis

West Indies defeated England by six wickets in the Women’s T20 World Cup on Tuesday to confirm their berth in the semi-finals from Group B. South Africa were the other team from the group to advance after all three were tied on six points. England missed out after falling behind on the net run-rate.

In the semi-finals, Australia will meet South Africa in Dubai on Thursday while New Zealand take on the West Indies a day later in Sharjah.

Brief scores: England 141/7 (Nat Sciver-Brunt 57; Afy Fletcher 3/21). WI 144/4 in 18 (Hayley Matthews 50, Qiana Joseph 52). WI won by 6 wickets.