India Women's in Tatters: Clean the Augean Stables, sack skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and coach Amol Muzumdar | Opinion

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Indian women's cricket is in the dumps, this time they have no excuses to offer. The horror-show which was enacted in Australia with Harmanpreet Kaur's side losing 0-3 in the ODI series on Wednesday is painful. Yes, the knives are out.

How long will fans tolerate failure, an abject surrender of sorts. The bright spark in the last match was a sparkling century from Smriti Mandhana and Arundhati Reddy snarling four wickets. If this is a consolation of sorts, it does not suffice one bit.

Women's cricket has grown every way. Sadly, the performance is not commensurate with the inputs from the BCCI, financial as well as technical. If the failure in the recent ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE can be treated as an aberration, capitulating to the Aussies was not expected.

When a team does badly, the captain has to take the blame. See how Rohit Sharma is being ripped apart by fans and former experts for India losing the Adelaide Test. The same sense of disbelief has hit followers of women's cricket. Social media is full of comments lambasting the team.

However, the main villains are the skipper and coach, Harmanpreet and Amol Mazumdar. Sample this post from former coach WV Raman. "Disappointing to see @bcciwomen lose their way repeatedly after setting themselves up well while chasing targets. Another occasion at the WACA today where it was set up well and then a sudden collapse," posted Raman.

Anyone who knows coach Raman would agree he does not mince words. When he was an active cricketer, he would play hard cricket and grab the bull by its horns. And when he was coaching the women's team, he was tough.

It is no secret that women players have repeatedly ganged up against the coach in the past. They did it to WV Raman and before that Lalchand Rajput and many more. Even former captain who turned coach Purnima Rau was not spared by the team.

For those who have been waiting to see Indian women's cricket do well, it has been too long. Harmanpreet has been a disaster, with the bat as well as captain. Her body language on the field, how she handles the side, everything has been a failure. In fact, she and Amol Mazumdar complement each other and can be rated as low as possible for poor performance.

Old timers are now talking about how Mithali Raj led the side durably. Harmanpreet would do well to quit or the BCCI must relieve her of captaincy. There are enough successors who can take over, be it Smriti or even Jemimah Rodrigues.

How Jemimah, a batter at No.3 has been pushed around in the order is baffling. And what justification can be given for benching Arundathy Reddy for a major part of the tour? Her four-wicket burst on Wednesday was awesome, why was she not playing before? And how does Harleen Deol come in at No.3.

There are more questions than answers at this point in time. India will be hosting the ICC Women's World Cup in 2025, and if this is the way the team is building up, major changes have to been made. It has to be proper surgery and a cosmetic one won't work.

Nobody will watch the Indian women losing all the time. In four days, the WPL auction will take place in Bengaluru. Players will be eager to know what prices they are going to fetch. It's a shame this side now gets money and more, but does not perform. Clean the Augean stables!