Fresh off her explosive finish against Pakistan, Richa Ghosh had a tough start to her net stint on Tuesday, a day ahead of India's clash against Netherlands. Unsettled by the varied pace of Nandni Sharma's sharp bouncers, Shafali Verma's right-arm unpredictables and a local net bowler with a Debashish Mohanty-esque action who repeatedly beat her and caught the edge of the bat, Ghosh shook her head and left the nets to get a change of the bat.

During that bat-change as she murmured to herself, repeating the motion of her swing with her wrists, Bharti Fulmali took strike. First up, she lofted Shafali on the legside; a shot which would have taken the ball, at best, past the inner ring towards mid wicket.

Amol Muzumdar, the head coach, watching the proceedings, wasn't too impressed. In his world, that's what you call a "Nothing shot". The suggestion was either hit hard or hit along the ground, something to add value to that shot, a shot with a bit more purpose.

Fulmali, who has scripted a dramatic return to the national team at the age of 31, finds herself in a very key position in India's quest for their maiden T20 glory. She needs to provide the muscle, the kind of which she has displayed in domestic cricket and the Women's Premier League over the past couple of seasons, but also play that high-risk cricket while having her spot in the XI itself come under competition. That competitor is not by a like-for-like.

In the England series preceding the World Cup (including the match against ECB Development Women's XI), India's experiment with Yastika Bhatia delivered mixed results upon her return from injury. She took the opposition on in the Powerplay, but largely struggled thereafter; her scoring rate witnessing a sharp dip from 202 to 85 in the post-Powerplay period. While her overall scoring rate of 128.68 for the 168 runs she chipped in across the four games remained fairly impressive for a player marking her return to competitive cricket after nearly nine months, it doesn't necessarily solve a problem for the team.

That concern didn't really find an adequate answer in the warm-up games of the World Cup either. However, after Fulmali failed to make the most of the opportunity that came her way in the World Cup opener against Pakistan, getting stumped off her third ball trying to look for a big shot, the team management went back to Yastika against Netherlands. Ironically, the southpaw batting in the same position (coming in at around the same time), departed in a similar fashion - off her fourth ball.

Fulmali has had a few knocks of note since her return - against South Africa, the ECB Development XI and in the warm-up game - but probably not enough to break the door open. For now, Yastika is getting the fresh bowlers to come at her in the nets. If Yastika does play at No. 3, it presents a different challenge - one or both of Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues may have to play out of position.

This one batting position not having an ideal candidate becomes a bigger concern since India's middle order - barring Richa Ghosh - hasn't fired in full flow so far in the competition, and there wasn't a lot of batting muscle the team carried past No. 7 in the line-up. Aavishkar Salvi, the bowling coach of India, however brushes aside the concerns. He says that the team is confident of their plans based on what they have picked over the past few months in practice, camps and matches.

"Every game that we get into, we go with a fresh slate," Salvi said on Friday, a day ahead of India's crucial group stage match against South Africa. "We think about what the pitch is going to offer, what the opposition is going to be like. Accordingly, we choose our best 11. So, basically, it is horses for courses that we focus on. We don't look too deep into why this player and why not that player. It is about on that day, what is required as per the conditions, what is the opposition strategy. Accordingly, we put in the playing 11.

"There are a lot of talks going on. I mean, role identification has been done. It is not about the [batting] number, it is about the position. It is about the situation. If the situation demands someone to play aggressively, they will play aggressively. It is not about a particular number 4 or number 5 or number 6. It is about the situation that they get into while they are in a T20 game. If the situation demands, they have to score at a brisk rate, they will deliver it because they have practiced it. If the situation demands that they have to change gears and they have to consolidate our position at that stage and time, they are up for it. Because they have practiced that in the camps, in the simulations that we went through, into the warm-up games that we went through. It started off long back.

"Right now, everybody is clear with their roles. It is only a matter of getting that opportunity, handling that situation well to the best of their abilities. Most of the times, they have been successful. Yeah, there will be times where while taking risks, someone might fail. But that's okay. As long as the process is right, as long as the intentions are right, I think we are in the right direction."

As the tournament heats up, and India drift towards more tougher challenges hoping to peak, finding clarity in the line-up, and the roles assigned to the batters will become crucial. It's a tough headache to have for the team management, but the good part about it is there are just two options to choose from. And ideally, one to stick with.