It’s about character now for India, says Hussain ahead of clash against England

New Delhi: Former England captain Nasser Hussain believes the remainder of India’s campaign in the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup, starting from their clash against England on Sunday, will now hinge on a psychological perspective on their character and ability to bounce back from consecutive defeats in Visakhapatnam.

India’s campaign in the ongoing World Cup is at a crucial juncture as they gear up for a must-win clash against England at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. Since 2020, India have failed to beat a SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) side at global tournaments across both formats.

With the possibility of missing out on the semifinals looming large, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side can’t afford to have a slip-up against Nat Sciver-Brunt & Co. Hussain also urged the Indian team to stay confident, reminding them of their ODI series win over England coming in July.

“I mean, mid-tournament, it's not ideal. As a host, you're going to have pressure all the way through. I think Harmanpreet, in her very first press conference, played it down and almost said, 'We don't feel the pressure, which is fine when you're winning.”

“But when you start losing, then that pressure does mount because every game then suddenly becomes a must-win game. Unless you're Australia, you are - I mean, Australia and England are the unbeaten sides in this tournament. You are going to lose - part of tournament cricket is losing the odd game and losing back-to-back games.”

“But it's how you recover from that, and it's important. So India have a lot of very good players on that side, and it's about character now. Two games, they could have easily won both those games. It's not like they're playing bad cricket and losing games. They just lost games to two or three brilliant bits of cricket from the opposition.”

“So I think they need to keep their confidence up. Remember, they beat England in the summer, and just that realisation in a long tournament, this is over a month, you may have an average week, but you can recover from that,” Hussain told IANS in the JioStar Press Room show on Friday. IANS

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