Indian women’s team 2023-24 home season came to an end on Tuesday (January 9) with the third T20I against Australia at DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai.

Harmanpreet Kaur and her troops played against England and Australia in two Tests and nine white-ball matches over the last 35 days.

While winning the one-off Test matches was the highest point for the team, the Women in Blue ended up losing seven out of the nine limited-overs fixtures.

Addressing the media after India’s seven-wicket loss in the third T20I against Australia, head coach Amol Muzumdar admitted that fitness, decision-making and the team's handling of DRS calls were the areas of concern.

"The biggest positive is the girls have responded really nicely in all the formats. Whether it was Test cricket — we played Test cricket after nine years in India — not many had played red-ball cricket till then. Those two Test matches were the highest point," Muzumdar told reporters.

"We really need to, as I said earlier, focus on our fielding and our fitness. Hopefully, in the following months, I will get a chance to work on it. Those are some areas where we have identified as a group that we need to raise the bar," he added.

Muzumdar emphasized that the Indian women’s team needs to work on its decision-making skills as well as DRS calls.

"It's just that we need to get used to it and we need to get better at it. With the (upcoming WPL) games, even if they (players) get used to taking it in the WPL, probably we might have a better understanding of the DRS," he said.

"At the moment, that's one area where I've said before the series that it could be a game-changer, and I still maintain that. But we need to work on that,” he further remarked.

The head coach was happy with the way the squad managed 11 matches across formats in almost a month against two strong opponents.

"It is quite a credit to all the girls who had a gruelling season. It was tough. We were playing England and we played Australia back-to-back and in different formats. I'm really happy that we've seen through the season."

"Not many, only Shubha Satheesh... that (injury) also happened on the day of the game and it was a finger injury. Really happy with the kind of work that has been put in throughout the season," he said.

India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur endured a torrid time with the bat right through the home season. She failed to score a half-century and registered six single-digit scores against Australia.

Despite the poor returns, Muzumdar disagreed with the notion of Harmanpreet being out of form.

"I wouldn't say (she is out of form) across formats. In Test matches, she got a 49 and then 44 not out. In the T20Is, it happens to every cricketer. She's been a great player for India. I'm sure you'll see some bright performances in the near future,” he stated.

(With PTI Inputs)