For much of their Women’s T20 World Cup campaign, India lived on the edge before their hopes ended in heartbreak against Australia at Lord’s on Sunday. The reigning ODI world champions’ league-stage exit reflected a collective failure that the team management can no longer afford to ignore. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, whose tournament finally came alive with a blistering 56 off 27 balls against Australia, admitted India had fallen short against the strongest teams.“Today we were in the game for quite some time, but still, I think we didn’t play to our standards and, as a group, we need to rethink a lot of things,” Harmanpreet said.Smriti Mandhana, India’s leading run-scorer with 205 runs and two half-centuries, embodied the issue. Of those runs, 138 came in boundaries despite facing 146 deliveries.The flaw was exposed against Australia. Smriti and Shafali added 66 for the opening wicket but consumed 55 deliveries, leaving too much for the middle order to do. Jemimah Rodrigues managed 92 runs, Yastika Bhatia scored 41, while Harmanpreet’s 141 was boosted by her knock vs Australia.Bowling still a work in progressSpin remained India’s biggest strength, but the pace attack lacked consistency and continuity. Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Nandani Sharma and Kranti Gaud were rotated.Collectively, the four seamers bowled 26.1 overs, conceded 235 runs and claimed just five wickets. Their inexperience was exposed whenever opponents applied pressure, particularly Australia. The standout performer was left-arm spinner Shree Charani, who finished with 14 wickets and often provided the control other departments could not.“If you look at our bowling attack, it’s very inexperienced. Give us 18 months and this attack will be a different one,” head coach Amol Muzumdar said.Fielding let India downFielding proved India’s biggest undoing. Apart from the Australia match, they dropped 11 catches in their first four games. The most damaging lapses came against South Africa, where Marizanne Kapp was dropped twice after Tazmin Brits had been reprieved. Kapp capitalised with an unbeaten 81 that guided South Africa to victory and ultimately altered India’s semifinal equation.India’s post-mortem cannot be limited to tactics. As Muzumdar noted, a rethink is needed. That reassessment must extend to selection, role clarity, fielding standards and accountability.