"We really have to rethink our strategy for our T20 game."

Head coach Amol Muzumdar, who had turned up to explain India's underwhelming T20 World Cup campaign, put up an honest front. The only issue with that confession was that it arrived a few hours after it was needed.

The English tour, where the Indian team played 11 matches (including warm-ups), had ended without ever finding their perfect game. As the team scampered for the perfect strategy - altering their middle order, and experimenting with five different pace combinations in as many games of the World Cup - their grand mission of the tour failed. It came crashing at Lord's in front of a record audience on an otherwise pleasant Sunday afternoon.

In some ways, India probably played their most complete game of the World Cup against Australia. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it lacked the errors on the field, the middle order collapse, and wasn't as stingless a Powerplay performance from the pacers (Renuka Thakur being the lone exception) as they had been putting up; all of which had come to define their campaign so far.

Yet, for all the talk about playing "fearless" and "aggressive" cricket, it was hard to hide the fact that when the pressure mounted, the team decided to go on the defensive in a must-win game. Errors in planning were plenty.

Opting to bat first

At the toss, Harmanpreet Kaur, the India captain, justified the decision to bat in order to allow the batters to play with a free mind. The preceding game - played on the same pitch earlier in the day - had offered indications that scoring may not be easy. Moreover, India were content with the eventual total they had mustered.

"I thought at the halfway stage, 170 was a good score," Muzumdar later confessed. "I guess it was a par score on this pitch. So what we did, we even got the momentum towards the end of that innings, and I think we carried it on the field as well."

In doing so, a team that has gone about defending their bowlers' performances down to their 'inexperience' throughout the tournament, pushed the onus on them to defend a par-total in a must-win game, against the might of the Australian batters. The pressure was, instead, eased from the experienced batting unit. To give perspective, the average experience of the top-seven batters was 125 T20I, and that of the top-five bowlers was nearly half of that.

Moreover, opting to bat allowed Australia what they wanted: an idea of what a good score on the surface is, something they were not able to quite comprehend when South Africa imploding in their chase of 118 against Bangladesh earlier in the day, just about stumbling across the line in the final over.

If anything, Harmanpreet Kaur's late assault provided them much-needed belief that there was scope to play the big shots. It allowed Australian batters to wriggle away even when the Indians piled up a series dot balls, ensuring they were always hovering around the required rate without having to take too many risks.

Retired out too late?

For a while, it was obvious that Jemimah Rodrigues was not having one of her better days in the middle. One of the few batters who had started this England tour in good nick, Rodrigues was shoved around everywhere in the middle order till the time she herself lost form. The last game against Bangladesh suggested a return, and when pushed back to No 3 for the game against Australia, her entry point was well timed at the start of the 10th over.

It all seemed fine: a solid start, a well-set fellow batting partner to begin the acceleration, and ample time to set the tempo of her innings. However, from thereon, the momentum started to slip away. A mix-up in the middle led to Smriti Mandhana getting run-out, and for nearly half of India's innings, Rodrigues motored along at just over run-a-ball.

It's not like she wasn't trying to hit. She went the full stretch: brought out the sweep, pulled out the reverse. She stepped out and tried to muscle a few over the in-field while also trying to stay back and cut. But she struggled to middle the ball. To their credit, the Australian bowlers were also disciplined with their lengths, ensuring there were no easy runs. If at all those came, it was courtesy a few dropped catches. Seven overs into her stay in the middle, a miscue to the sweeper cover fielder made it obvious that her struggle had stretched for far too long. At that point, she had managed only 21 off 19.

With eight wickets to spare, and less than four overs to go, India could have maximised the potential of Richa Ghosh, who herself can be a slow starter, even if she makes up for it quickly thereafter. Instead, they went on to trust Jemimah's time in the middle, hoping it would offer the desired result towards the end. That hunt continued for almost three more overs before Rodrigues was retired out, and Richa was eventually brought on. The hard-hitting 'keeper-batter got only one ball to face.

With India having taken the decision to retire out Yastika Bhatia in the England series, that option was always on the table, but Muzumdar confessed it didn't click to him earlier.

"It really didn't strike me at that time (with 3-4 overs to spare). I thought Jemi is a clutch player for us. Jemi and Harman, both of them were going really strong. In the last two overs, I felt that, Jemi couldn't penetrate that field, and that's why that call was taken."

Inexperience in the bowling starting to show

"We always talk in our meetings about picking up wickets whatever be the format of the game - whether it is T20, 50-over, or Test match cricket - it is all about picking up wickets when you're on the field. Containment is never a line that we use. We always think about picking up wickets in the dressing room, and I think that will be the mode of operation going forward as well. We keep thinking of wickets when the ball is in our hand."

Muzumdar's claims about India's bowling process were quite bold, but it wasn't hard to see every time Australia got some easy runs, the bowlers repeatedly went on the defensive. It started with Kranti Gaud being taken apart, conceding 12 runs. The pacer was brought into the team because the management believed the condition at Lord's suited her style of bowling. After that one over, she never returned to bowl.

But it wasn't just down to captaincy. When Radha Yadav was being taken apart in her second over, she immediately switched from bowling spin to fast darts. Renuka Thakur, on the other hand, resorted to extremely wide lines. Both of them are fairly experienced at the international circuit, and the moment a few runs were leaked, they tried to sneak in a few dot balls instead of going for more wicket-taking options.

Ellyse Perry, with her experience, ensured that the bowlers didn't get time to settle into their lengths. She repeatedly stepped out of her crease to upset the bowlers' rhythm. And when they would pull their lengths back, she would rock back and work the ball towards the bigger part of the field to sneak in easy twos.

From the other end, Ash Gardner ensured the pressure mounted early on the bowlers, looking to go after them in the initial few balls, and keeping them under pressure for the rest of the overs.

Harmanpreet, who was otherwise quite active, literally going up to Shafali Verma after every dot ball she piled up, stayed put at her position the moment boundaries started to leak. Sophie Molineux, the Australian skipper, had sensed the potential to double down on the under-pressure Indians. And the defensive ploy only allowed for them to execute their plans.

Muzumdar highlighted the absence of Shreyanka Patil as one of the key reasons why the bowling attack lacked bite. "Shreyanka was probably one of our strikers. So it didn't help her missing out on half of the tournament. We really missed her in this game today. I think she would have made a difference on that pitch and on this ground."

That's far too much dependence on a bowler who has the experience of only 24 T20Is. It might seem like an excuse, but he did confess that the team struggled with their bowling. "We have been batting with a lot of intent. We have been positive in our thinking. We have been thinking about fours and sixes, as modern-day T20 cricket is all about fours and sixes. So, we have been thinking and we have been playing in that fashion for sure. It's just that our bowling also needs to up the ante a little bit. I don't think our bowling or our fielding helped the cause, to be very honest."

But the reality is, of the eight frontline bowlers, four have featured in over 50 T20Is. The one who is least experienced, Sree Charani, was the only standout frontline bowler for the team. That they relied on Shafali Verma's part-time spin over and over again, was a sign enough that their issue was not as much with inexperience.

Harmanpreet also used the same word 'rethink', but in a slightly different context, and probably in a more holistic sense. "As a group, we really need to rethink a lot of things, how we have to go against good teams, especially because sometimes, we are in the game, but last few overs we've been giving away heavy runs. If we're chasing, then we are not able to get those runs while batting. It's been happening for quite a long time," she said after the loss against Australia.

At the end of all the analysis of the rights and wrongs for the Indian team, it all boiled down to one simple pre-tournament prediction: the one who turns up better in the clash between Indian and South Africa would make it to the semis. And that's exactly how it turned out. It didn't matter how they got past the challenges against Pakistan, Bangladesh and Netherlands.

It's not as if South Africa's campaign has been any better or with fewer worries, even as they move to the semifinals. They stuttered and stumbled past Pakistan and Bangladesh. In fact, by the end of the group stage, they had outsourced even their qualification hopes to Australia. Irrespective, the terms of Group A was eventually set by the team that made fewer mistakes on the afternoon of June 21.

Those dropped catches proved costly for India. Eventually, South Africa, led by a classy fight from Marizanne Kapp, turned up as the better side on the day.

"We need to really go back and think how we're going to approach the T20 game and also be in that positive frame of mind," Muzumdar admitted. "We really need to put our heads around what combination we are going to play."

This admission may have come a little too late; and it has come with a condition of waiting for 18 more months to see the bowling attack mature. Similar concerns remain with the batting too. Four seasons into the WPL, no one is making a strong enough case to challenge the Indian top-six for a place in the XI. Maybe the nature of the WPL doesn't allow for too many domestic Indian batters to have a shot at batting in those positions; at best, for now, there are G Kamilini and Anushka Sharma in the wings. But the team is still overly reliant on the incumbent batters to level up their own game.

This World Cup campaign is a strong reminder that India's T20 game is not at par with the best in the world, and the back-ups are not really breaking the door open. Muzumdar agrees with it. He may talk about the 'rethink' but there is no clarity yet on what that would be.

The combination? The playing style? The coaching staff?

If yes, what does the new version of India's T20 game look like?

There would be some time to debrief and find answers for the long-term. For now, India can rest their worries for a while and prepare for another historic event, two weeks from now at the same venue where they laid their campaign to rest: the first-ever Women's Test at Lord's.