How India bounce back from their T20 World Cup upset at the hands of New Zealand will demonstrate the character of the side, Jemimah Rodrigues says.
It will also have a huge bearing on their semi-final prospects with Group A - the tournament's 'group of death' - delicately poised just two days in following New Zealand's 58-run victory in Dubai on Friday and Pakistan's fightback against Sri Lanka in Sharjah on the opening day.
Australia, the defending champions and title favourites, open their campaign on Saturday against Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, South Africa defeated West Indies by 10 wickets in the earlier game on Friday to join Bangladesh at the top of Group B, with Bangladesh to play England on Saturday.
And it will require some turnaround from India. Bowled out for 102 chasing 161 for victory, none of their batters passed captain Harmanpreet Kaur's 15 runs from No.3, and only five reached double-figures, including Rodrigues with 13 batting at No. 4. For New Zealand, seamers Rosemary Mair and Lea Tahuhu took 4 for 19 and 3 for 15 respectively.
"Today would be the game we would like to forget, because this is a World Cup," Rodrigues said. "We need to keep moving on and keep picking ourselves up. We can't stay stuck at this game. We need to pick ourselves up, and I think that will show the character of this team.
"We know every game from here is so crucial for us. We know that, but at the same time, we're going to go one game at a time and just make sure we stick to our process and do our job well. If we can do that, I think we play our best cricket, I think we can win matches."
New Zealand laid the foundation for victory with a 67-run opening stand between Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer, who attacked the powerplay, followed by captain Sophie Devine's powerful 57 not out from 36 balls.
It was quite the turnaround for a side whose T20 World Cup in 2023 was over as soon as it had begun with heavy defeats to Australia and South Africa, and who lost all eight games they played - including five T20Is - against England in June and July.
But Rodrigues said her side wasn't necessarily caught off-guard by New Zealand attacking in the powerplay.
"They came out with a lot of intent," she said. "We did create opportunities, but unfortunately we didn't make the most of them. Then the way we came back after the start was … I mean, not many positives in this game, but still, going forward, we need to have the right approach because the tournament is not over. We need to take some positives from this game and a lot of learnings from this game.
"It's not the easiest of conditions, it's really hot here in Dubai, but I think we've got enough time to get used to the conditions so we don't give an excuse, like it's too hot or whatever it is. We just need to do our job and win the match for the team. So when it comes to conditions, I think we are very used to the conditions. It's got better from the first day we've come here. So I think we are very prepared for this and all of us stay in India, so we are very familiar to such conditions."
Rodrigues also said India weren't rattled by a controversial moment in the 14th over of New Zealand's innings. India thought they had run out Amelia Kerr, who had hit a Deepti Sharma delivery towards long-off and run a single with Devine. As Harmanpreet Kaur gathered the ball, the batters attempted a second run, just as Deepti took her cap back from the umpire. Harmanpreet threw the ball in and Richa Ghosh broke the stumps with Kerr short of her ground but the ball was deemed to have been dead, sparking heated discussions between Harmanpreet and the India team management with the umpires. As it turns out, Kerr was dismissed two balls later.
"We know how important Amelia Kerr's wicket is and yes, at that moment it felt a little, 'why didn't it go in our favour?'" Rodrigues said. "But at the same time, I think we did what we could. We spoke to the umpire, then we had to accept the decision of the umpire and move on. I think that's what we did really well, that we just moved on from that and we got her out pretty soon. So that worked for us."